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Principles  of  Home  Decoration 


By  the  same  author 
“  Decorators  and  Decorating  ” 
“  Content  in  a  Garden  ” 

“  How  to  Make  Rugs  ” 


O.NING-ROOM  IN  “PENNYROYAL”  (IN  MRS.  BOUDINOT  KEITH’S  COTTAGE,  ONTEORA) 


Principles  of 
Home  Decoration 


With  Practical  Examples 


By 


Candace  Wheeler 


New  York 

Doubleday,  Page  &  Company 
1908 


Copyright,  1903,  by 
Doublkday,  Page  &  Company 
Published  February  i9°3 


RESEARCH  libra 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I . 

Decoration  as  an  Art. 

Decoration  in  American  Homes. 

Woman’s  Influence  in  Decoration. 

CHAPTER  II . 

Character  in  Homes. 

CHAPTER  III . 

Builders’  Houses. 

Expedients. 

CHAPTER  IV . 

Colour  in  Houses. 

Colour  as  a  Science. 

Colour  as  an  Influence. 

CHAPTER  V . 

The  Law  of  Appropriateness. 

Cleanliness  and  Harmony  Tastefully  Combined. 
Bedroom  Furnished  in  Accordance  with  Individual 
Tastes. 

CHAPTER  VI . 

Kitchens. 

Treatment  of  Walls  from  a  Hygienic  Point  of  View. 

CHAPTER  VII . 

Colour  with  Reference  to  Light. 

Examples  of  the  Effects  of  Light  on  Colour. 
Gradation  of  Colour. 


PACE 

3 


17 

22 


34 


42 


63 


72 


CONTENTS  ( Continued) 


CHAPTER  . . 

Walls,  Ceilings  and  Floors. 

Treatment  and  Decoration  of  Walls. 

Use  of  Tapestry,  Leather  and  Wall-Papers. 

Panels  of  Wood,  Painted  Walls,  Textiles. 

CHAPTER  IX . 

Location  of  the  House. 

Decoration  Influenced  by  Situation. 

CHAPTER  X . 

Ceilings. 

Decorations  in  Harmony  with  Walls. 

Treatment  in  Accordance  with  Size  of  Room. 

CHAPTER  XI.  .  . . 

Floors  and  Floor  Coverings. 

Treatment  of  Floors— Polished  Wood,  Mosaics. 
Judicious  Selection  of  Rugs  and  Carpets. 

CHAPTER  XII . 

Draperies. 

Importance  of  Appropriate  Colours. 

Importance  of  Appropriate  Textures. 

CHAPTER  XIII. . . 

Furniture. 

Character  in  Rooms. 

Harmony  in  Furniture. 

Comparison  Between  Antique  and  Modern  Furniture. 
Treatment  of  the  Different  Rooms. 


PAGE 

89 


IIS 


122 


128 


142 


l6o 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


Dining-room  in  “Penny-royal”  (Mrs.  Boudinot  Keith’s 

cottage,  Onteora)  .....  Frontispiece 

FACING  PAGE 

Hall  in  city  house,  showing  effect  of  staircase  divided  and 

turned  to  rear  ........  30 

Stenciled  borders  for  hall  and  bathroom  decorations  .  .  50 

Sitting-room  in  “Wild  Wood,”  Onteora  (belonging  to 

Miss  Luisita  Leland)  ......  80 

Large  sitting-room  in  “Star  Rock”  (country  house  of 

W.  E.  Connor,  Esq.,  Onteora)  ....  92 

Painted  canvas  frieze  and  buckram  frieze  for  dining-room  106 

Square  hall  in  city  house  .  .  .  .  .  .130 

Colonial  chairs  and  sofa  (belonging  to  Mrs.  Ruth  McEnery 

Stuart) . 160 

Colonial  mantel  and  English  hob-grate  (sitting-room  in 

Mrs.  Candace  Wheeler’s  house)  ....  168 

Sofa  designed  by  Mrs.  Candace  Wheeler,  for  N.  Y.  Library 

in  “Woman’s  Building,”  Columbian  Exposition  .  176 

Rustic  sofa  and  tables  in  “Penny-royal”  (Mrs.  Boudinot 

Keith’s  cottage,  Onteora)  .  .  .  .  .188 

Dining-room  in  “Star  Rock”  (country  house  of  W.  E. 

Connor,  Esq.,  Onteora)  ......  198 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS  Continued) 

FACING 

Dining-room  in  New  York  house  showing  leaded-glass 
windows  .... 

Dining-room  in  New  York  home  showing  carved  wains¬ 
coting  and  painted  frieze  .... 

Screen  and  glass  windows  in  house  at  Lakewood 
(belonging  to  Clarence  Root,  Esq.) 


PACK 

212 


2l6 


222 


Principles  of  Home  Decoration 


Principles  of  Home  Decoration 


CHAPTER  I 

DECORATION  AS  AN  ART 

“  Who  creates  a  Home,  creates  a  potent  spirit  ’which  in  turn 
doth  fashion  him  that  fashioned 

DROBABLY  no  art  has  so  few 
masters  as  that  of  decoration.  In 
England,  Morris  was  for  many  years  the 
great  leader,  but  among  his  followers 
in  England  no  one  has  attained  the 
dignity  of  unquestioned  authority;  and 
in  America,  in  spite  of  far  more  general 
practice  of  the  art,  we  still  are  without  a 
leader  whose  very  name  establishes  law. 

It  is  true  we  are  free  to  draw  inspi¬ 
ration  from  the  same  sources  which 
supplied  Morris  and  the  men  associated 
with  him  in  his  enthusiasms,  and  in  fact 
we  do  lean,  as  they  did,  upon  English 
eighteenth -century  domestic  art — and 
derive  from  the  men  who  made  that 
period  famous  many  of  our  articles  of 


3 


4  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

faith  ;  but  there  are  almost  no  authorita¬ 
tive  books  upon  the  subject  of  appro 
priate  modern  decoration.  Our  text 
books  are  still  to  be  written ;  and  one 
must  glean  knowledge  from  many 
sources,  shape  it  into  rules,  and  test 
the  rules,  before  adopting  them  as  safe 

guides.  . 

Yet  in  spite  of  the  absence  of  authori¬ 
tative  teaching,  we  have  learned  that  an 
art  dependent  upon  other  arts,  as  deco¬ 
ration  is  upon  building  and  architecture, 
is  bound  to  follow  the  principles  which 
govern  them.  We  must  base  our  work 
upon  what  has  already  been  done,  select 
our  decorative  forms  from  appropriate 
periods,  conform  our  use  of  colour  to 
the  principles  of  colour,  and  be  able 
to  choose  and  apply  all  manufactures  in 
accordance  with  the  great  law  of  appro¬ 
priateness.  If  we  do  this,  we  stand  upon 
something  capable  of  evolution  and  the 

creation  of  a  system. 

In  so  far  as  the  principles  of  decoration 
are  derived  from  other  arts,  they  can  be 


DECORATION  AS  AN  ART 


S 


acquired  by  every  one,  but  an  exquisite 
feeling  in  their  application  is  the  distin¬ 
guishing  quality  of  the  true  decorator. 

There  is  quite  a  general  impression 
that  house-decoration  is  not  an  art  which 
requires  a  long  course  of  study  and 
training,  but  some  kind  of  natural  knack 
of  arrangement  —  a  faculty  of  making 
things  “  look  pretty,”  and  that  any  one 
who  has  this  faculty  is  amply  qualified 
for  “taking  up  house  -  decoration.” 
Indeed,  natural  facility  succeeds  in  satis¬ 
fying  many  personal  cravings  for  beauty, 
although  it  is  not  competent  for  general 
practice. 

Of  course  there  are  people,  and  many 
of  them,  who  are  gifted  with  an  inherent 
sense  of  balance  and  arrangement,  and 
a  true  eye  for  colour,  and — given  the 
same  materials — such  people  will  make 
a  room  pleasant  and  cozy,  where  one 
without  these  gifts  would  make  it  posi¬ 
tively  ugly.  In  so  far,  then,  individual 
gifts  are  a  great  advantage,  yet  one  pos¬ 
sessing  them  in  even  an  unusual  degree 


6  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

may  make  great  mistakes  in  decoration. 
What  not  to  do,  in  this  day  of  almost 
universal  experiment,  is  perhaps  the  most 
valuable  lesson  to  the  untrained  deco¬ 
rator.  Many  of  the  rocks  upon  which 
he  splits  are  down  in  no  chart,  and  lie  in 
the  track  of  what  seems  to  him  perfectly 
plain  sailing. 

There  are  houses  of  fine  and  noble 
exterior  which  are  vulgarized  by  unedu¬ 
cated  experiments  in  colour  and  orna¬ 
ment,  and  belittled  by  being  filled  with 
heterogeneous  collections  of  unimpor¬ 
tant  art.  Yet  these  very  instances  serve 
to  emphasize  the  demand  for  beautiful 
surroundings,  and  in  spite  of  mistakes 
and  incongruities,  must  be  reckoned  as 
efforts  toward  a  desirable  end. 

In  spite  of  a  prevalent  want  of  train¬ 
ing,  it  is  astonishing  how  much  we  have 
of  good  interior  decoration,  not  only  in 
houses  of  great  importance,  but  in  those 
of  people  of  average  fortunes— indeed, 
it  is  in  the  latter  that  we  get  the  general 
value  of  the  art. 


DECORATION  IN  AMERICAN  HOMES 


7 


This  comparative  excellence  is  to  be 
referred  to  the  very  general  acquirement 
of  what  we  call  “art  cultivation  ”  among 
American  women,  and  this,  in  conjunc¬ 
tion  with  a  knowledge  that  her  social 
world  will  be  apt  to  judge  of  her 
capacity  by  her  success  or  want  of  suc¬ 
cess  in  making  her  own  surroundings 
beautiful,  determines  the  efforts  of  the 
individual  woman.  She  feels  that  she  is 
expected  to  prove  her  superiority  by 
living  in  a  home  distinguished  for  beauty 
as  well  as  for  the  usual  orderliness  and 
refinement.  Of  course  this  sense  of  ob¬ 
ligation  is  a  powerful  spur  to  the  exercise 
of  natural  gifts,  and  if  in  addition  to 
these  she  has  the  habit  of  reasoning 
upon  the  principles  of  things,  and  is 
sufficiently  cultivated  in  the  literature  of 
art  to  avoid  unwarrantable  experiment, 
there  is  no  reason  why  she  should  not 
be  successful  in  her  own  surroundings. 

The  typical  American,  whether  man 
or  woman,  has  great  natural  facility,  and 
when  the  fact  is  once  recognized  that 


8 


PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 


beauty — like  education — can  dignify  any 
circumstances,  from  the  narrowest  to  the 
most  opulent,  it  becomes  one  of  the 
objects  of  life  to  secure  it.  How  this 
is  done  depends  upon  the  talent  and 
cultivation  of  the  family,  and  this  is 
often  adequate  for  excellent  results. 

It  is  quite  possible  that  so  much 
general  ability  may  discourage  the  study 
of  decoration  as  a  precise  form  of  art, 
since  it  encourages  the  idea  that  The 
House  Beautiful  can  be  secured  by  any 
one  who  has  money  to  pay  for  pro¬ 
cesses,  and  possesses  what  is  simply 
designated  as  “  good  taste.” 

We  do  not  find  this  impulse  toward 
the  creation  of  beautiful  interiors  as 
noticeable  in  other  countries  as  in 
America.  The  instinct  of  self-expres¬ 
sion  is  much  stronger  in  us  than  in 
other  races,  and  for  that  reason  we  can¬ 
not  be  contented  with  the  utterances  of 
any  generation,  race  or  country  save  our 
own.  We  gather  to  ourselves  what  we 
personally  enjoy  or  wish  to  enjoy,  and 


DECORATION  *IN  AMERICAN  HOMES  9 

will  not  take  our  domestic  environment 
at  second  hand.  It  follows  that  there  is 
a  certain  difference  and  originality  in 
our  methods,  which  bids  fair  to  acquire 
distinct  character,  and  may  in  the 
future  distinguish  this  art-loving  period 
as  a  maker  of  style. 

A  successful  foreign  painter  who  has 
visited  this  country  at  intervals  during 
the  last  ten  years  said,  “  There  is  no  such 
uniformity  of  beautiful  interiors  any¬ 
where  else  in  the  world.  There  are 
palaces  in  France  and  Italy,  and  great 
country  houses  in  England,  to  the  em¬ 
bellishment  of  which  generations  of 
owners  have  devoted  the  best  art  of  their 
own  time  ;  but  in  America  there  is  some¬ 
thing  of  it  everywhere.  Many  unpre¬ 
tentious  houses  have  drawing-rooms 
possessing  colour  -  decoration  which 
would  distinguish  them  as  examples  in 
England  or  France. ” 

To  Americans  this  does  not  seem  a 
remarkable  fact.  We  have  come  into  a 
period  which  desires  beauty,  and  each 


10 


PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 


one  secures  it  as  best  he  can.  We  are  a 
teachable  and  a  studious  people,  with  a 
faculty  of  turning  “  general  information  ” 
to  account ;  and  general  information 
upon  art  matters  has  had  much  to  do 
with  our  good  interiors. 

We  have,  perhaps  half  unconsciously, 
applied  fundamental  principles  to  our 
decoration,  and  this  may  be  as  much 
owing  to  natural  good  sense  as  to  culti¬ 
vation.  We  have  a  habit  of  reasoning 
about  things,  and  acting  upon  our  con¬ 
clusions,  instead  of  allowing  the  rest  of 
the  world  to  do  the  reasoning  while  we 
adopt  the  result.  It  is  owing  to  this 
conjunction  of  love  for  and  cultivation 
of  art,  and  the  habit  of  materializing 
what  we  wish,  that  we  have  so  many 
thoroughly  successful  interiors,  which 
have  been  accomplished  almost  without 
aid  from  professional  artists.  It  is  these, 
instead  of  the  smaller  number  of  costly 
interiors,  which  give  the  reputation  of 
artistic  merit  to  our  homes. 

Undoubtedly  the  largest  proportion 


WOMAN’S  INFLUENCE  IN  DECORATION  n 

of  successful  as  well  as  unsuccessful 
domestic  art  in  our  country  is  due  to  the 
efforts  of  women.  In  the  great  race  for 
wealth  which  characterizes  our  time,  it  is 
demanded  that  women  shall  make  it 
effective  by  so  using  it  as  to  distinguish 
the  family ;  and  nothing  distinguishes  it 
so  much  as  the  superiority  of  the  home. 
This  effort  adheres  to  small  as  well  as 
large  fortunes,  and  in  fact  the  necessity 
is  more  pronounced  in  the  case  of  medi¬ 
ocre  than  of  great  ones.  In  the  former 
there  is  something  to  be  made  up — some 
protest  of  worth  and  ability  and  intelli¬ 
gence  that  helps  many  a  home  to  become 
beautiful. 

As  I  have  said,  a  woman  feels  that 
the  test  of  her  capacity  is  that  her  house 
shall  not  only  be  comfortable  and  at¬ 
tractive,  but  that  it  shall  be  arranged 
according  to  the  laws  of  harmony  and 
beauty.  It  is  as  much  the  demand  of 
the  hour  as  that  she  shall  be  able  to  train 
her  children  according  to  the  latest  and 
most  enlightened  theories,  or  that  she 


12 


PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 


shall  take  part  in  public  and  philan¬ 
thropic  movements,  or  understand  and 
have  an  opinion  on  political  methods. 
These  are  things  which  are  expected 
of  every  woman  who*  makes  a  part  of 
society;  and  no  less  is  it  expected  that 
her  house  shall  be  an  appropriate  and 
beautiful  setting  for  her  personality,  a 
credit  to  her  husband,  and  an  uncon¬ 
scious  education  for  her  children. 

But  it  happens  that  means  of  educa¬ 
tion  in  all  of  these  directions,  except 
that  of  decoration,  are  easily  available. 
A  woman  can  become  a  member  of  a 
kindergarten  association,  and  get  from 
books  and  study  the  result  of  scientific 
knowledge  of  child-life  and  training. 
She  can  find  means  to  study  the  ethics  of 
her  relations  to  her  kind  and  become  an 
effective  philanthropist,  or  join  the  league 
for  political  education  and  acquire  a 
more  or  less  enlightened  understanding  of 
politics ;  but  who  is  to  formulate  for  her 
the  science  of  beauty,  to  teach  her  how 
to  make  the  interior  aspect  of  her  home 


WOMAN’S  INFLUENCE  IN  DECORATION  13 

perfect  in  its  adaptation  to  her  circum¬ 
stances,  and  as  harmonious  in  colour  and 
arrangement  as  a  song  without  words? 
She  feels  that  these  conditions  create  a 
mental  atmosphere  serene  and  yet  in¬ 
spiring,  and  that  such  surroundings  are 
as  much  her  birthright  and  that  of  her 
children  as  food  and  clothing  of  a  grade 
belonging  to  their  circumstances,  but 
how  is  it  to  be  compassed  ? 

Most  women  ask  themselves  this 
question,  and  fail  to  understand  that  it 
is  as  much  of  a  marvel  when  a  woman 
without  training  or  experience  creates 
a  good  interior  as  a  whole ,  as  if  an 
amateur  in  music  should  compose  an 
opera.  It  is  not  at  all  impossible  for  a 
woman  of  good  taste — and  it  must  be 
remembered  that  this  word  means  an 
educated  or  cultivated  power  of  selec¬ 
tion — to  secure  harmonious  or  happily 
contrasted  colour  in  a  room,  and  to  select 
beautiful  things  in  the  way  of  furniture 
and  belongings  ;  but  what  is  to  save  her 
from  the  thousand  and  one  mistakes 


H  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

possible  to  inexperience  in  this  com¬ 
bination  of  things  which  make  lasting 
enjoyment  and  appropriate  perfection 
in  a  house  ?  How  can  she  know  which 
rooms  will  be  benefited  by  sombre  or 
sunny  tints,  and  which  exposure  will 
give  full  sway  to  her  favourite  colour 
or  colours?  How  can  she  have  learned 
the  reliability  or  want  of  reliability  in 
certain  materials  or  processes  used  in 
decoration,  or  the  rules  of  treatment 
which  will  modify  a  low  and  dark  room 
and  make  it  seem  light  and  airy,  or 
“  bring  down  ”  too  high  a  ceiling  and 
widen  narrow  walls  so  as  to  apparently 
correct  disproportion  ?  These  things  are 
the  results  of  laws  which  she  has  never 
studied— laws  of  compensation  and  re¬ 
lation,  which  belong  exclusively  to  the 
world  of  colour,  and  unfortunately  they 
are  not  so  well  formulated  that  they  can  be 
committed  to  memory  like  rules  of  gram¬ 
mar;  yet  all  good  colour-practice  rests 
upon  them  as  unquestionably  as  language 
rests  upon  grammatical  construction. 


WOMAN’S  INFLUENCE  IN  DECORATION  15 

Of  course  one  may  use  colour  as 
one  can  speak  a  language,  purely  by 
imitation  and  memory,  but  it  is  not 
absolutely  reliable  practice ;  and  just 
here  comes  in  the  necessity  for  pro¬ 
fessional  advice. 

There  are  many  difficulties  in  the 
accomplishment  of  a  perfect  house- 
interior  which  few  householders  have 
had  the  time  or  experience  to  cope  with, 
and  yet  the  fact  remains  that  each  mis¬ 
tress  of  a  house  believes  that  unless  she 
vanquishes  all  difficulties  and  comes  out 
triumphantly  with  colours  flying  at  the 
housetop  and  enjoyment  and  admiration 
following  her  efforts,  she  has  failed  in 
something  which  she  should  have  been 
perfectly  able  to  accomplish.  But  the 
obligation  is  certainly  a  forced  one.  It 
is  the  result  of  the  modern  awakening 
to  the  effect  of  many  heretofore  un¬ 
recognized  influences  in  our  lives  arid 
the  lives  and  characters  of  our  children. 
A  beautiful  home  is  undoubtedly  a  great 
means  of  education,  and  of  that  best 


x6  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

of  all  education  which  is  unconscious. 
To  grow  up  in  such  a  one  means  a 
much  more  complete  and  perfect  man 
or  woman  than  would  be  possible  with¬ 
out  that  particular  influence. 

But  a  perfect  home  is  never  created 
all  at  once  and  by  one  person,  and  let 
the  anxious  house-mistress  take  comfort 
in  the  thought.  She  should  also  remem¬ 
ber  that  it  is  in  the  nature  of  beauty 
to  grow ,  and  that  a  well-rounded  and 
beautiful  family  life  adds  its  quota  day 
by  day.  Every  book,  every  sketch 
or  .picture — every  carefully  selected  or 
characteristic  object  brought  into  the 
home  adds  to  and  makes  a  part  of 
a  beautiful  whole,  and  no  house  can 
be  absolutely  perfect  without  all  these 

evidences  of  family  life. 

It  can  be  made  ready  for  them,  com¬ 
pletely  and  perfectly  ready,  by  professional 
skill  and  knowledge ;  but  if  it  remained 
just  where  the  interior  artist  or  decorator 
left  it,  it  would  have  no  more  of  the 
sentiment  of  domesticity  than  a  statue. 


CHAPTER  II 

CHARACTER  IN  HOUSES 

"For  the  created  still  doth  shadow  forth  the  mind  and  will  which 
made  it." 

"  Thou  art  the  very  mould  of  thy  creator." 

FT  NEEDS  the  combined  personality 
of  the  family  to  make  the  character 
of  the  house.  No  one  could  say  of  a 
house  which  has  family  character,  “  It 

is  one  of - ’s  houses”  (naming  one 

or  another  successful  decorator),  because 
the  decorator  would  have  done  only 
what  it  was  his  business  to  do — used 
technical  and  artistic  knowledge  in 
preparing  a  proper  and  correct  back¬ 
ground  for  family  life.  Even  in  doing 
that,  he  must  consult  family  tastes 
and  idiosyncracies  if  he  has  the  rever¬ 
ence  for  individuality  which  belongs 
to  the  true  artist. 

A  domestic  interior  is  a  thing  to 
which  he  should  give  knowledge  and 
not  personality,  and  the  puzzled  home- 


17 


18  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

maker,  who  understands  that  her  world 
expects  correct  use  of  means  of  beauty, 
as  well  as  character  and  originality  in 
her  home,  need  not  feel  that  to  secure 
the  one  she  must  sacrifice  the  other. 

An  inexperienced  person  might  think 
it  an  easy  thing  to  make  a  beautiful 
home,  because  the  world  is  full  of 
beautiful  art  and  manufactures,  and  if 
there  is  money  to  pay  for  them  it 
would  seem  as  easy  to  furnish  a  house 
with  everything  beautiful  as  to  go  out 
in  the  garden  and  gather  beautiful 
flowers  i  but  we  must  remember  that 
the  world  is  also  full  of  ugly  things 
things  false  in  art,  in  truth  and  in 
beauty — things  made  to  sell  made  with 
only  this  idea  behind  them,  manu¬ 
factured  on  the  principle  that  an  arti¬ 
ficial  fly  is  made  to  look  something 
like  a  true  one  in  order  to  catch  the 
inexpert  and  the  unwary.  It  is  a  curious 
fact  that  these  false  things  manufac¬ 
tures  without  honesty,  without  knowl¬ 
edge,  without  art— have  a  property  of 


CHARACTER  IN  HOUSES 


19 


demoralizing  the  spirit  of  the  home, 
and  that  to  make  it  truly  beautiful 
everything  in  it  must  be  genuine  as 
well  as  appropriate,  and  must  also  fit 
into  some  previously  considered  scheme 
of  use  and  beauty. 

The  esthetic  or  beautiful  aspect  of 
the  home,  in  short,  must  be  created 
through  the  mind  of  the  family  or 
owner,  and  is  only  maintained  by  its 
or  his  susceptibility  to  true  beauty  and 
appreciation  of  it.  It  must,  in  fact, 
be  a  visible  mould  of  invisible  matter, 
like  the  leaf-mould  one  finds  in  mineral 
springs,  which  show  the  wonderful 
veining,  branching,  construction  and 
delicacy  of  outline  in  a  way  which  one 
could  hardly  be  conscious  of  in  the 
actual  leaf. 

If  the  grade  or  dignity  of  the  home 
requires  professional  and  scholarly  art 
direction,  the  problem  is  how  to  use 
this  professional  or  artistic  advice  with¬ 
out  delivering  over  the  entire  creation 
into  stranger  or  alien  hands ;  without 


20  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

abdicating  the  right  and  privilege  of 
personal  expression.  If  the  decorator 
appreciates  this  right,  his  function  will 
be  somewhat  akin  to  that  of  the 
portrait  painter ;  both  are  bound  to 
represent  the  individual  or  family  in 
their  performances,  each  artist  using 
the  truest  and  best  methods  of  art 
with  the  added  gift  of  grace  or  charm 
of  colour  which  he  possesses,  the  one 
giving  the  physical  aspect  of  his  client 
and  the  other  the  mental  characteristics, 
circumstances,  position  and  life  of  the 
house-owner  and  his  family.  This  is 
the  true  mission  of  the  decorator, 
although  it  is  not  always  so  under¬ 
stood.  What  is  called  business  talent 
may  lead  him  to  invent  schemes  of 
costliness  which  relate  far  more  to 
his  own  profit  than  to  the  wishes  or 
character  of  the  house-owner. 

But  it  is  not  always  that  the  assist¬ 
ance  of  the  specialist  in  decoration 
and  furnishing  is  necessary.  There  are 
homes  where  both  are  quite 


many 


CHARACTER  IN  HOUSES 


21 


within  the  scope  of  the  ordinary  man 
or  woman  of  taste.  In  fact,  the  great 
majority  of  homes  come  within  these 
lines,  and  it  is  to  such  home-builders 
that  rules,  not  involving  styles,  are 
especially  of  use. 

The  principles  of  truth  and  har¬ 
mony,  which  underlie  all  beauty, 
may  be  secured  in  the  most  inex¬ 
pensive  cottage  as  well  as  in  the 
broadest  and  most  imposing  residence. 
Indeed,  the  cottage  has  the  advantage 
of  that  most  potent  ally  of  beauty — 
simplicity— a  quality  which  is  apt  to 
be  conspicuously  absent  from  the 
schemes  of  decoration  for  the  palace. 


CHAPTER  III 

BUILDERS’  HOUSES 
“  Mine  own  hired  house." 

A  LARGE  proportion  of  homes  are 
made  in  houses  which  are  not 
owned,  but  leased,  and  this  prevents 
each  man  or  family  from  indicating 
personal  taste  in  external  aspect.  A 
rich  man  and  house-owner  may  approxi¬ 
mate  to  a  true  expression  of  himself 
even  in  the  outside  of  his  house  if 
he  strongly  desires  it,  but  a  man  of 
moderate  means  must  adapt  himself 
and  his  family  to  the  house-builder  s 
idea  of  houses— that  is  to  say,  to  the 
idea  of  the  man  who  has  made  house¬ 
building  a  trade,  and  whose  experiences 
have  created  a  form  into  which  houses 
of  moderate  cost  and  fairly  universal 
application  may  be  cast. 

Although  it  is  as  natural  to  a  man 
to  build  or  acquire  a  home  as  to  a 


BUILDERS’  HOUSES 


23 


bird  to  build  a  nest,  he  has  not  the 
same  unfettered  freedom  in  construc¬ 
tion.  He  cannot  always  adapt  his 
house  either  to  the  physical  or  mental 
size  of  his  family,  but  must  accept 
what  is  possible  with  much  the  same 
feeling  with  which  a  family  of  robins 
might  accommodate  themselves  to  a 
wren’s  nest,  or  an  oriole  to  that  of 
a  barn-swallow.  But  the  fact  remains, 
that  all  these  accidental  homes  must, 
in  some  way,  be  brought  into  har¬ 
mony  with  the  lives  to  be  lived  in 
them,  and  the  habits  and  wants  of 
the  family;  and  not  only  this,  they 
must  be  made  attractive  according  to 
the  requirements  of  cultivated  society. 
The  effort  toward  this  is  instructive, 
and  the  pleasure  in  and  enjoyment  of 
the  home  depends  upon  the  success 
of  the  effort.  The  inmates,  as  a  rule, 
are  quite  clear  as  to  what  they  want 
to  accomplish,  but  have  seldom  had 
sufficient  experience  to  enable  them 
to  remedy  defects  of  construction. 


24 


PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 


There  are  expedients  by  which 
many  of  the  malformations  and  ugli¬ 
nesses  of  the  ordinary  “  builder’s 
house”  may  be  greatly  ameliorated, 
various  small  surgical  operations  which 
will  remedy  badly  planned  rooms, 
and  dispositions  of  furniture  which  will 
restore  proportion.  We  can  even,  by 
judicious  distribution  of  planes  of 
colour,  apparently  lower  or  raise  a 
ceiling,  and  widen  or  lengthen  a  room, 
and  these  expedients,  which  belong 
partly  to  the  experience  of  the  deco¬ 
rator,  are  based  upon  laws  which  can 
easily  be  formulated.  Every  one  can 
learn  something  of  them  by  the  study 
of  faulty  rooms  and  the  enjoyment  of 
satisfactory  ones.  Indeed,  I  know  no 
surer  or  more  agreeable  way  of  getting 
wisdom  in  the  art  of  decoration  than 
by  tracing  back  sensation  to  its  source, 
and  finding  out  why  certain  things 
are  utterly  satisfactory,  and  certain 
others  a  positive  source  of  discomfort. 

In  what  are  called  the  “  best 


EXPEDIENTS 


25 


houses  ”  we  can  make  our  deductions 
quite  as  well  as  in  the  most  faulty, 
and  sometimes  get  a  lesson  of  avoid¬ 
ance  and  a  warning  against  law¬ 
breaking  which  will  be  quite  as 
useful  as  if  it  were  learned  in  less 
than  the  best. 

There  is  one  fault  very  common 
in  houses  which  date  from  a  period 
of  some  forty  or  fifty  years  back,  a 
fault  of  disproportionate  height  of 
ceilings.  In  a  modern  house,  if  one 
room  is  large  enough  to  require  a 
lofty  ceiling,  the  architect  will  manage 
to  make  his  second  floor  upon  differ¬ 
ent  levels,  so  as  not  to  inflict  the 
necessary  height  of  large  rooms  upon 
narrow  halls  and  small  rooms,  which 
should  have  only  a  height  propor¬ 
tioned  to  their  size.  A  ten-foot  room 
with  a  thirteen  -  foot  ceiling  makes 
the  narrowness  of  the  room  doubly 
apparent;  one  feels  shut  up  between 
two  walls  which  threaten  to  come 
together  and  squeeze  one  between 


z6  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

them,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  a 
ten-foot  room  with  a  nine-foot  ceiling 
may  have  a  really  comfortable  and 
cozy  effect. 

In  this  case,  what  is  needed  is  to 
get  rid  of  the  superfluous  four  feet, 
and  this  can  be  done  by  cheating  the 
eye  into  an  utter  forgetfulness  of  them. 
There  must  be  horizontal  divisions  of 
colour  which  attract  the  attention  and 
make  one  oblivious  of  what  is  above 
them. 

Every  one  knows  the  effect  of  a 
paper  with  perpendicular  stripes  in 
apparently  heightening  a  ceiling  which 
is  too  low,  but  not  every  one  is 
equally  aware  of  the  contrary  effect 
of  horizontal  lines  of  varied  surface. 
But  in  the  use  of  perpendicular  lines 
it  is  well  to  remember  that,  if  the 
room  is  small,  it  will  appear  still 
smaller  if  the  wall  is  divided  into 
narrow  spaces  by  vertical  lines.  If  it 
is  large  and  the  ceiling  simply  low 
for  the  size  of  the  room,  a  good 


EXPEDIENTS 


*7 


deal  can  be  done  by  long,  simple  lines 
of  drapery  in  curtains  and  portieres, 
or  in  choosing  a  paper  where  the 
composition  of  design  is  perpendicular 
rather  than  diagonal. 

To  apparently  lower  a  high  ceiling 
in  a  small  room,  the  wall  should 
be  treated  horizontally  in  different 
materials.  Three  feet  of  the  base  can 
be  covered  with  coarse  canvas  or 
buckram  and  finished  with  a  small 
wood  moulding.  Six  feet  of  plain  wall 
above  this,  painted  the  same  shade  as 
the  canvas,  makes  the  space  of  which 
the  eye  is  most  aware.  This  space 
should  be  finished  with  a  picture 
moulding,  and  the  four  superfluous  feet 
of  wall  above  it  must  be  treated  as 
a  part  of  the  ceiling.  The  cream- 
white  of  the  actual  ceiling  should  be 
brought  down  on  the  side  walls  for 
a  space  of  two  feet,  and  this  has  the 
effect  of  apparently  enlarging  the  room, 
since  the  added  mass  of  light  tint 
seems  to  broaden  it.  There  still  re- 


28  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

main  two  feet  of  space  between  the 
picture  moulding  and  ceiling-line  which 
may  be  treated  as  a  ceiling-border  in 
inconspicuous  design  upon  the  same 
cream  ground,  the  design  to  be  in 
darker,  but  of  the  same  tint  as  the 
ceiling. 

The  floor  in  such  a  room  as  this 
should  either  be  entirely  covered  with 
plain  carpeting,  or,  if  it  has  rugs  at 
all,  there  should  be  several,  as  one 
single  rug,  not  entirely  covering  the 
floor,  would  have  the  effect  of  con¬ 
fining  the  apparent  size  of  the  room 
to  the  actual  size  of  the  rug. 

If  the  doors  and  windows  in  such 
a  room  are  high  and  narrow,  they 
can  be  made  to  come  into  the  scheme 
by  placing  the  curtain  and  portiere 
rods  below  the  actual  height  and 
covering  the  upper  space  with  thin 
material,  either  full  or  plain,  of  the 
same  colour  as  the  upper  wall.  A 
brocaded  muslin,  stained  or  dyed  to 
match  the  wall,  answers  this  purpose 


EXPEDIENTS 


29 


admirably,  and  is  really  better  in  its 
place  than  the  usual  expedient  of 
stained  glass  or  open-work  wood  tran¬ 
som.  A  good  expedient  is  to  have  the 
design  already  carried  around  the  wall 
painted  in  the  same  colour  upon  a 
piece  of  stretched  muslin.  This  is 
simple  but  effective  treatment,  and  is 
an  instance  of  the  kind  of  thought 
or  knowledge  that  must  be  used  in 
remedying  faults  of  construction. 

Colour  has  much  to  do  with  the 
apparent  size  of  rooms,  a  room  in 
light  tints  always  appearing  to  be 
larger  than  a  deeply  coloured  one. 

Perhaps  the  most  difficult  problem 
in  adaptation  is  the  high,  narrow  city 
house,  built  and  decorated  by  the 
block  by  the  builder,  who  is  also  a 
speculator  in  real  estate,  and  whose 
activity  was  chiefly  exercised  before 
the  ingenious  devices  of  the  modern 
architect  were  known.  These  houses 
exist  in  quantities  in  our  larger  and 
older  cities,  and  mere  slices  of  space 


30  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

as  they  are,  are  the  theatres  where  the 
home-life  of  many  refined  and  beauty- 
loving  intelligences  must  be  played. 

In  such  houses  as  these,  the  task 
of  fitting  them  to  the  cultivated  eyes 
and  somewhat  critical  tests  of  modern 
society  generally  falls  to  the  women 
who  represent  the  family,  and  calls 
for  an  amount  of  ability  which  would 
serve  to  build  any  number  of  credita¬ 
ble  houses ;  yet  this  is  constantly  be¬ 
ing  done  and  well  done  for  not  one, 
but  many  families.  I  know  one  such, 
which  is  quite  a  model  of  a  charming 
city  home  and  yet  was  evolved  from 
one  of  the  worst  of  its  kind  and  period. 
In  this  case  the  family  had  fallen  heir 
to  the  house  and  were  therefore  jus¬ 
tified  in  the  one  radical  change  which 
metamorphosed  the  entrance  -  hall, 
from  a  long,  narrow  passage,  with  an 
apparently  interminable  stairway  oc¬ 
cupying  half  its  width,  to  a  small  re¬ 
ception-hall  seemingly  enlarged  by  a 


HALL  IN  CITY  HOUSE  SHOWING  EFFECT  OF  STAIRCASE  DIVIDED  AND  TURNED  TO  REAR 


, 


EXPEDIENTS 


3* 


judicious  placing  of  the  mirrors  which 
had  formerly  been  a  part  of  the  “  fixt¬ 
ures  ”  of  the  parlour  and  dining-room. 

The  reception-room  was  accom¬ 
plished  by  cutting  off  the  lower  half 
of  the  staircase,  which  had  extended 
itself  to  within  three  feet  of  the  front 
door,  and  turning  it  directly  around, 
so  that  it  ends  at  the  back  instead 
of  the  front  of  the  hall.  The  two 
cut  ends  are  connected  by  a  platform, 
thrown  across  from  wall  to  wall,  and 
furnished  with  a  low  railing  of  carved 
panels,  and  turned  spindles,  which 
gives  a  charming  balcony  effect.  The 
passage  to  the  back  hall  and  stairs 
passes  under  the  balcony  and  upper 
end  of  the  staircase,  while  the  space 
under  the  lower  stair-end,  screened  by 
a  portiere,  adds  a  coat-closet  to  the 
conveniences  of  the  reception-hall. 

This  change  was  not  a  difficult 
thing  to  accomplish,  it  was  simply  an 
expedient ,  but  it  has  the  value  of  care- 


32 


PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 


fully  planned  construction,  and  re¬ 
minds  one  of  the  clever  utterance  of 
the  immortal  painter  who  said,  “  I 
never  lose  an  accident.” 

Indeed  the  ingenious  home-maker 
often  finds  that  the  worse  a  thing  is, 
the  better  it  can  be  made  by  com¬ 
petent  and  careful  study.  To  com¬ 
plete  and  adapt  incompetent  things 
to  orderliness  and  beauty,  to  har¬ 
monise  incongruous  things  into  a 
perfect  whole  requires  and  exercises 
ability  of  a  high  order,  and  the  con¬ 
sciousness  of  its  possession  is  no  small 
satisfaction.  That  it  is  constantly 
being  done  shows  how  much  real 
cleverness  is  necessary  to  ordinary 
pfe — and  reminds  one  of  the  patri¬ 
otic  New  York  state  senator  who  de¬ 
clared  that  it  required  more  ability 
to  cross  Broadway  safely  at  high  tide, 
than  to  be  a  great  statesman.  And 
truly,  to  make  a  good  house  out  of 
a  poor  one,  or  a  beautiful  interior 


EXPEDIENTS 


33 


from  an  ugly  one,  requires  far  more 
thought,  and  far  more  original  talent, 
than  to  decorate  an  important  new 
one.  The  one  follows  a  travelled 
path — the  other  makes  it. 

Of  course  competent  knowledge 
saves  one  from  many  difficulties ;  and 
faults  of  construction  must  be  met  by 
knowledge,  yet  this  is  often  greatly 
aided  by  natural  cleverness,  and  in  the 
course  of  long  practice  in  the  deco¬ 
rative  arts,  I  have  seen  such  refreshing 
and  charming  results  from  thoughtful 
untrained  intelligence, — I  might  al¬ 
most  say  inspiration,  —  that  I  have 
great  respect  for  its  manifestations ; 
especially  when  exercised  in  un-au- 
thoritative  fashion. 


CHAPTER  IV 
COLOUR  IN  HOUSES 

“  Heaven  gives  us  of  its  colour ,  for  our  joy, 

Hues  which  have  words  and  speak  to  ye  of  heaven. 

\  LTHOUGH  the  very  existence  of 
2c  house  is  a  matter  of  construc¬ 
tion,  its  general  interior  effect  is  al¬ 
most  entirely  the  result  of  colour 
treatment  and  careful  and  cultivated 
selection  of  accessories. 

Colour  in  the  house  includes  much 
that  means  furniture,  in  the  way  of 
carpets,  draperies,  and  all  the  modern 
conveniences  of  civilization,  but  as  it 
precedes  and  dictates  the  variety  of 
all  these  things  from  the  authoritative 
standpoint  of  wall  treatment,  it  is 
well  to  study  its  laws  and  try  to  reap 
the  full  benefit  of  its  influence. 

As  far  as  effect  is  concerned,  the 
colour  of  a  room  creates  its  atmos¬ 
phere.  It  may  be  cheerful  or  sad, 


34 


COLOUR  IN  HOUSES 


35 


cosy  or  repellent  according  to  its 
quality  or  force.  Without  colour  it 
is  only  a  bare  canvas,  which  might, 
but  does  not  picture  our  lives. 

We  understand  many  of  the  prop¬ 
erties  of  colour,  and  have  unconscious¬ 
ly  learned  some  of  its  laws ; — but 
what  may  be  called  the  science  of  col¬ 
our  has  never  been  formulated.  So 
far  as  we  understand  it,  its  principles 
correspond  curiously  to  those  of  mel¬ 
odious  sound.  It  is  as  impossible 
to  produce  the  best  effect  from  one 
tone  or  colour,  as  to  make  a  melody 
upon  one  note  of  the  harmonic  scale; 
it  is  skilful  variation  of  tone,  the  gra¬ 
dation  or  even  judicious  opposition 
of  tint  which  gives  exquisite  satisfac¬ 
tion  to  the  eye.  In  music,  sequence 
produces  this  effect  upon  the  ear,  and 
in  colour,  juxtaposition  and  gradation 
upon  the  eye.  Notes  follow  notes 
in  melody  as  shade  follows  shade  in 
colour.  We  find  no  need  of  even  dif- 


36  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

ferent  names  for  the  qualities  peculiar 
to  the  two  ;  scale — notes — tones — 
harmonies — the  words  express  effects 
common  to  colour  as  well  as  to  music, 
but  colour  has  this  advantage,  that  its 
harmonies  can  be  fixed ,  they  do  not 
die  with  the  passing  moment ;  once 
expressed  they  remain  as  a  constant 
and  ever-present  delight. 

Notes  of  the  sound-octave  have 
been  gathered  by  the  musicians  from 
widely  different  substances,  and  care¬ 
fully  linked  in  order  and  sequence  to 
make  a  harmonious  scale  which  may 
be  learned;  but  the  painter,  con¬ 
scious  of  colour-harmonies,  has  as  yet 
no  written  law  by  which  he  can  pro¬ 
duce  them. 

The  “  born  colourist  ”  is  one  who 
without  special  training,  or  perhaps  in 
spite  of  it,  can  unerringly  combine  or 
oppose  tints  into  compositions  which 
charm  the  eye  and  satisfy  the  sense. 
Even  among  painters  it  is  by  no  means 


COLOUR  IN  HOUSES 


37 


a  common  gift.  It  is  almost  more 
rare  to  find  a  picture  distinguished  for 
its  harmony  and  beauty  of  colour,  than 
to  see  a  room  in  which  nothing  jars 
and  everything  works  together  for 
beauty.  It  seems  strange  that  this 
should  be  a  rarer  personal  gift  than  the 
musical  sense,  since  nature  apparently 
is  far  more  lavish  of  her  lessons  for 
the  eye  than  for  the  ear ;  and  it  is 
curious  that  colour,  which  at  first  si  ght 
seems  a  more  apparent  and  simple 
fact  than  music,  has  not  yet  been 
written.  Undoubtedly  there  is  a  col¬ 
our  scale,  which  has  its  sharps  and 
flats,  its  high  notes  and  low  notes,  its 
chords  and  discords,  and  it  is  not  im¬ 
possible  that  in  the  future  science  may 
make  it  a  means  of  regulated  and 
written  harmonies  : — that  some  mas¬ 
ter  colourist  who  has  mechanical  and 
inventive  genius  as  well,  may  so  ar¬ 
range  them  that  they  can  be  played 
by  rule ;  that  colour  may  have  its 


38  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

Mozart  or  Beethoven — its  classic  mel¬ 
odies,  its  familiar  tunes.  The  mu¬ 
sician,  as  I  have  said — has  gathered 
his  tones  from  every  audible  thing  in 
nature— and  fitted  and  assorted  and 
built  them  into  a  science  ;  and  why 
should  not  some  painter  who  is  also  a 
scientist  take  the  many  variations  of 
colour  which  lie  open  to  his  sight, 
and  range  and  fit  and  combine,  and 
write  the  formula,  so  that  a  child  may 
read  it  ? 

We  already  know  enough  to  be 
very  sure  that  the  art  is  founded  upon 
laws,  although  they  are  not  thorough¬ 
ly  understood.  Principles  of  masses, 
spaces,  and  gradations  underlie  all  ac¬ 
cidental  harmonies  of  colour; — -just  as 
in  music,  the  simple,  strong,  under¬ 
chords  of  the  bass  must  be  the  ground 
for  all  the  changes  and  trippings  of 
the  upper  melodies. 

It  is  easy,  if  one  studies  the  subject, 
to  see  how  the  very  likeness  of  these 


COLOUR  IN  HOUSES 


39 


two  esthetic  forces  illustrate  the  laws 
of  each, — in  the  principles  of  relation, 
gradation,  and  scale. 

Until  very  recently  the  relation  of 
colour  to  the  beauty  of  a  house  in¬ 
terior  was  quite  unrecognised.  If  it 
existed  in  any  degree  of  perfection 
it  was  an  accident,  a  result  of  the 
softening  and  beautifying  effect  of 
time,  or  of  harmonious  human  living. 
Where  it  existed,  it  was  felt  as  a  mys¬ 
terious  charm  belonging  to  the  home  ; 
something  which  pervaded  it,  but  had 
no  separate  being  ;  an  attractive  ghost 
which  attached  itself  to  certain  houses, 
followed  certain  people,  came  by 
chance,  and  was  a  mystery  which  no 
one  understood,  but  every  one  ac¬ 
knowledged.  Now  we  know  that 
this  something  which  distinguished 
particular  rooms,  and  made  beautiful 
particular  houses,  was  a  definite  result 
of  laws  of  colour  accidentally  ap- 


4o  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

To  avail  ourselves  of  this  influence 
upon  the  moods  and  experiences  of 
life  is  to  use  a  power  positive  in  its 
effects  as  any  spiritual  or  intellectual 
influence.  It  gives  the  kind  of  joy 
we  find  in  nature,  in  the  golden-green 
of  light  under  tree-branches,  or  the 
mingled  green  and  gray  of  tree  and 
rock  shadows,  or  the  pearl  and  rose 
of  sunrise  and  sunset.  We  call  the 
deep  content  which  results  from  such 
surroundings  the  influence  of  nature, 
and  forget  to  name  the  less  spiritual, 
the  more  human  condition  of  well¬ 
being  which  comes  to  us  in  our  homes 
from  being  surrounded  with  some¬ 
thing  which  in  a  degree  atones  for 
lack  of  nature’s  beauty. 

It  is  a  different  well-being,  and 
lacks  the  full  tide  of  electric  enjoy¬ 
ment  which  comes  from  living  for 
the  hour  under  the  sky  and  in  the 
breadths  of  space,  but  it  atones  by 
substituting  something  of  our  own 


COLOUR  IN  HOUSES 


41 


invention,  which  surprises  us  by  its 
compensations,  and  confounds  us  by 
its  power. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  LAW  OF  APPROPRIATENESS 

T  HAVE  laid  much  stress  upon  the 
A  value  of  colour  in  interior  deco¬ 
ration,  but  to  complete  the  beauty  of 
the  home  something  more  than  happy 
choice  of  tints  is  required.  It  needs 
careful  and  educated  selection  of  fur¬ 
niture  and  fittings,  and  money  enough 
to  indulge  in  the  purchase  of  an 
intrinsically  good  thing  instead  of  a 
medium  one.  It  means  even  some¬ 
thing  more  than  the  love  of  beauty 
and  cultivation  of  it,  and  that  is  a  per¬ 
fect  adherence  to  the  law  of  appro¬ 
priateness* 

This  is,  after  all,  the  most  important 
quality  of  every  kind  of  decoration, 
the  one  binding  and  general  condition 
of  its  accomplishment.  It  requires 
such  a  careful  fitting  together  of  all 


42 


THE  LAW  OF  APPROPRIATENESS  43 

the  means  of  beauty  as  to  leave  no 
part  of  the  house,  whatever  may  be 
its  use,  without  the  same  care  for 
appropriate  completeness  which  goes 
to  the  more  apparent  features.  The 
cellar,  the  kitchen,  the  closets,  the 
servants’  bedrooms  must  all  share  in 
the  thought  which  makes  the  gen¬ 
uinely  beautiful  home  and  the  gen¬ 
uinely  perfect  life.  It  must  be  pos¬ 
sible  to  go  from  the  top  to  the  bottom 
of  the  house,  finding  everywhere 
agreeable,  suitable,  and  thoughtful 
furnishings.  The  beautiful  house 
must  consider  the  family  as  a  whole, 
and  not  make  a  museum  of  rare  and 
costly  things  in  the  drawing-room,  the 
library,  the  dining-room  and  family 
bedrooms,  leaving  that  important  part 
of  the  whole  machinery,  the  service, 
untouched  by  the  spirit  of  beauty. 
The  same  care  in  choice  of  colour 
will  be  as  well  bestowed  on  the  ser¬ 
vants’  floor  as  on  those  devoted  to  the 


44 


PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 


family,  and  curtains,  carpets  and  fur¬ 
niture  may  possess  as  much  beauty  and 
yet  be  perfectly  appropriate  to  ser¬ 
vants’  use. 

On  this  upper  floor,  it  goes  almost 
without  saying,  that  the  walls  must  be 
painted  in  oil-colour  instead  of  cov¬ 
ered  with  paper.  That  the  floors 
should  be  uncarpeted  except  for  bed¬ 
side  rugs  which  are  easily  removable. 
That  bedsteads  should  be  of  iron,  the 
mattress  with  changeable  covers,  the 
furniture  of  painted  and  enameled  in¬ 
stead  of  polished  wood,  and  in  short 
the  conditions  of  healthful  cleanliness 
as  carefully  provided  as  if  the  rooms 
were  in  a  hospital  instead  of  a  pri¬ 
vate  house— but  the  added  comfort 
of  carefully  chosen  wall  colour,  and 
bright,  harmonizing,  washable  chintz 
in  curtains  and  bed-covers. 

These  things  have  an  influence  up¬ 
on  the  spirit  of  the  home ;  they  are 
a  part  of  its  spiritual  beauty,  giving  a 


THE  LAW  OF  APPROPRIATENESS  45 

satisfied  and  approving  consciousness 
to  the  home-makers,  and  a  sense  of 
happiness  in  the  service  of  the  family. 

In  the  average,  or  small  house, 
there  is  room  for  much  improvement 
in  the  treatment  and  furnishing  of 
servants’  bedrooms ;  and  this  is  not 
always  from  indifference,  but  because 
they  are  out  of  daily  sight,  and  also 
from  a  belief  that  it  would  add  seri¬ 
ously  to  the  burden  of  housekeeping 
to  see  that  they  are  kept  up  to  the 
standard  of  family  sleeping-rooms. 

In  point  of  fact,  however,  good 
surroundings  are  potent  civilizers,  and 
a  house-servant  whose  room  is  well 
and  carefully  furnished  feels  an  added 
value  in  herself,  which  makes  her  treat 
herself  respectfully  in  the  care  of  her 
room. 

If  it  pleases  her,  the  training  she 
receives  in  the  care  of  family  rooms 
will  be  reflected  in  her  own,  and 
painstaking  arrangements  made  for 


46  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

her  pleasure  will  perhaps  be  recog¬ 
nised  as  an  obligation. 

Of  course  the  fact  must  be  recog¬ 
nised,  that  the  occupant  is  not  always 
a  permanent  one ;  that  it  may  at 
times  be  a  fresh  importation  directly 
from  a  city  tenement  ;  therefore, 
everything  in  the  room  should  be 
able  to  sustain  very  radical  treatment 
in  the  way  of  scrubbing  and  cleaning. 
Wall  papers,  unwashable  rugs  and  cur¬ 
tains  are  out  of  the  question ;  yet 
even  with  these  limitations  it  is  possi¬ 
ble  to  make  a  charming  and  reason¬ 
ably  inexpensive  room,  which  would 
be  attractive  to  cultivated  as  well  as 
uncultivated  taste.  It  is  in  truth 
mostly  a  matter  of  colour ;  of  col¬ 
oured  walls,  and  harmonising  furni¬ 
ture  and  draperies,  which  are  in  them¬ 
selves  well  adapted  to  their  place. 

As  I  have  said  elsewhere,  the  walls 
in  a  servant’s  bedroom— and  prefer¬ 
ably  in  any  sleeping-room — should 


THE  LAW  OF  APPROPRIATENESS  47 

for  sanitary  reasons  be  painted  in  oil 
colours,  but  the  possibilities  of  deco¬ 
rative  treatment  in  this  medium  are 
by  no  means  limited.  All  of  the 
lighter  shades  of  green,  blue,  yellow, 
and  rose  are  as  permanent,  and  as 
easily  cleaned,  as  the  dull  grays  and 
drabs  and  mud-colours  which  are  of¬ 
ten  used  upon  bedroom  walls — es¬ 
pecially  those  upper  ones  which  are 
above  the  zone  of  ornament,  appar¬ 
ently  under  the  impression  that  there 
is  virtue  in  their  very  ugliness. 

“  A  good  clean  gray  ”  some  worthy 
housewife  will  instruct  the  painter  to 
use,  and  the  result  will  be  a  dead 
mixture  of  various  lively  and  pleas¬ 
ant  tints,  any  one  of  which  might  be 
charming  if  used  separately,  or  mod¬ 
ified  with  white.  A  small  room  with 
walls  of  a  very  light  spring  green,  or 
a  pale  turquoise  blue,  or  white  with 
the  dash  of  vermilion  and  touch  of 
yellow  ochre  which  produces  salmon- 


48  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

pink,  is  quite  as  durably  and  service¬ 
ably  coloured  as  if  it  were  chocolate- 
brown,  or  heavy  lead-colour  ;  indeed 
its  effect  upon  the  mind  is  like  a  spring 
day  full  of  sunshine  instead  of  one 
dark  with  clouds  or  lowering  storms. 

The  rule  given  elsewhere  for  colour 
in  light  or  dark  exposure  will  hold 
good  for  service  bedrooms  as  well  as 
for  the  important  rooms  of  the  house. 
That  is;  if  a  bedroom  for  servants’  use 
is  on  the  north  or  shadowed  side  of 
the  house,  let  the  colour  be  salmon 
or  rose  pink,  cream  white,  or  spring 
green  ;  but  if  it  is  on  the  sunny  side, 
the  tint  should  be  turquoise,  or  pale 
blue,  or  a  grayish-green,  like  the  green 
of  a  field  of  rye.  With  such  walls,  a 
white  iron  bedstead,  enameled  furni¬ 
ture,  curtains  of  white,  or  a  flowered 
chintz  which  repeats  or  contrasts  with 
the  colour  of  the  walls,  bedside  and 
bureau  rugs  of  the  tufted  cotton  which 
is  washable,  or  of  the  new  rag-rugs  of 


THE  LAW  OF  APPROPRIATENESS  49 

which  the  colours  are  “  water  fast,” 
the  room  is  absolutely  good,  and  can 
be  used  as  an  influence  upon  a  lower 
or  higher  intelligence. 

As  a  matter  of  utility  the  toilet 
service  should  be  always  of  white  ;  so 
that  there  will  be  no  chance  for  the 
slovenly  mismatching  which  results 
from  breakage  of  any  one  of  the  dif¬ 
ferent  pieces,  when  of  different  col¬ 
ours.  A  handleless  or  mis-matched 
pitcher  will  change  the  entire  charac¬ 
ter  of  a  room  and  should  never  be 
tolerated. 

If  the  size  of  the  room  will  war¬ 
rant  it,  a  rocking-chair  or  easy-chair 
should  always  be  part  of  its  equip¬ 
ment,  and  the  mattress  and  bed-springs 
should  be  of  a  quality  to  give  ease  to 
tired  bones,  for  these  things  have  to 
do  with  the  spirit  of  the  house. 

It  may  be  said  that  the  colour¬ 
ing  and  furnishing  of  the  servants’ 
bedroom  is  hardly  a  part  of  house 


50  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

decoration,  but  in  truth  house  deco¬ 
ration  at  its  best  is  a  means  of  happi¬ 
ness,  and  no  householder  can  achieve 
permanent  happiness  without  making 
the  service  of  the  family  sharers  in  it. 

What  I  have  said  with  regard  to 
painted  walls  in  plain  tints  applies  to 
bedrooms  of  every  grade,  but  where 
something  more  than  merely  agree¬ 
able  colour  effect  is  desired  a  sten¬ 
cilled  decoration  from  the  simplest 
to  the  most  elaborate  can  be  added. 
There  are  many  ways  of  using  this 
method,  some  of  which  partake  very 
largely  of  artistic  effect ;  indeed  a 
thoroughly  good  stencil  pattern  may 
reproduce  the  best  instances  of  design, 
and  in  the  hands  of  a  skilful  work¬ 
man  who  knows  how  to  graduate  and 
vary  contrasting  or  harmonising  tints 
it  becomes  a/very  artistic  method  and 
deserves  a  place  of  high  honour  in  the 
art  of  decoration. 

Its  simplest  form  is  that  of  a  sten- 


I>  AND  2.  STENCILED  BORDERS  FOR  BATH-ROOM  DECORATION  ;  3,  4  AND  5,  STENCILED 
BORDERS  FOR  HALLS  (BY  DUNHAM  WHEELER) 


THE  LAW  OF  APPROPRIATENESS  51 

cilled  border  in  flat  tints  used  either 
in  place  of  a  cornice  or  as  the  bor¬ 
der  of  a  wall-paper  is  used.  This,  of 
course,  is  a  purely  mechanical  per¬ 
formance,  and  one  with  which  every 
house-painter  is  familiar.  After  this 
we  come  to  borders  of  repeating  de¬ 
sign  used  as  friezes.  This  can  be  done 
with  the  most  delicate  and  delightful 
effect,  although  the  finished  wall  will 
still  be  capable  of  withstanding 
the  most  energetic  annual  scrubbing. 
Frieze  borders  of  this  kind  starting 
with  strongly  contrasting  colour  at 
the  top  and  carried  downward  through 
gradually  fading  tints  until  they  are 
lost  in  the  general  colour  of  the  wall 
have  an  openwork  grille  effect  which 
is  very  light  and  graceful.  There  are 
infinite  possibilities  in  the  use  of  sten¬ 
cil  design  without  counting  the  intro¬ 
duction  of  gold  and  silver,  and  bronzes 
of  various  iridescent  hues  which  are 
more  suitable  for  rooms  of  general 


52  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

use  than  for  bedrooms.  Indeed  in 
sleeping-rooms  the  use  of  metallic 
colour  is  objectionable  because  it  will 
not  stand  washing  and  cleaning  with¬ 
out  defacement.  The  ideal  bedroom 
is  one  that  if  the  furniture  were  re¬ 
moved  a  stream  of  water  from  a  hose 
might  be  played  upon  its  walls  and 
ceiling  without  injury.  I  always  re¬ 
member  with  pleasure  a  pink  and 
silver  room  belonging  to  a  young  girl, 
where  the  salmon-pink  walls  were 
deepened  in  colour  at  the  top  into 
almost  a  tint  of  vermilion  which  had 
in  it  a  trace  of  green.  It  was,  in  fact, 
an  addition  of  spring  green  dropped 
into  the  vermilion  and  carelessly 
stirred,  so  that  it  should  be  mixed  but 
not  incorporated.  Over  this  shaded 
and  mixed  colour  for  the  space  of 
three  feet  was  stencilled  a  fountain¬ 
like  pattern  in  cream-white,  the  arches 
of  the  pattern  filled  in  with  almost  a 
lace-work  of  design.  The  whole  up- 


THE  LAW  OF  APPROPRIATENESS 


53 


per  part  had  an  effect  like  carved  ala¬ 
baster  and  was  indescribably  light  and 
graceful. 

The  bed  and  curtain-rods  of  silver- 
lacquer,  and  the  abundant  silver  of  the 
dressing-table  gave  a  frosty  contrast 
which  was  necessary  in  a  room  of  so 
warm  a  general  tone.  This  is  an  ex¬ 
ample  of  very  delicate  and  truly  ar¬ 
tistic  treatment  of  stencil-work,  and 
one  can  easily  see  how  it  can  be  used 
either  in  simple  or  elaborate  fashion 
with  great  effect. 

Irregularly  placed  floating  forms 
of  Persian  or  Arabic  design  are  often 
admirably  stencilled  in  colour  upon 
a  painted  wall ;  but  in  this  case  the 
colours  should  be  varied  and  not  too 
strong.  A  group  of  forms  floating 
away  from  a  window-frame  or  cor¬ 
nice  can  be  done  in  two  shades  of  the 
wall  colour,  one  of  which  is  positive¬ 
ly  darker  and  one  lighter  than  the 
ground.  If  to  these  two  shades  some 


54 


PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 


delicately  contrasting  colour  is  occa¬ 
sionally  added  the  effect  is  not  only 
pleasing,  but  belongs  to  a  thoroughly 
good  style. 

One  seldom  tires  of  a  good  sten¬ 
cilled  wall ;  probably  because  it  is  in¬ 
trinsic,  and  not  applied  in  the  sense 
of  paper  or  textiles.  It  carries  an 
air  of  permanency  which  discourages 
change  or  experiment,  but  it  requires 
considerable  experience  in  decoration 
to  execute  it  worthily;  and  not  only 
this,  there  should  be  a  strong  feeling 
for  colour  and  taste  and  education  in 
the  selection  of  design,  for  though  the 
form  of  the  stencilled  pattern  may  be 
graceful,  and  gracefully  combined,  it 
must  always — to  be  permanently  sat¬ 
isfactory- — have  a  geometrical  basis. 
It  is  somewhat  difficult  to  account 
for  the  fact  that  what  we  call  natural 
forms,  of  plants  and  flowers,  which 
are  certainly  beautiful  and  graceful  in 
themselves,  and  grow  into  shapes  which 


THE  LAW  OF  APPROPRIATENESS  55 

delight  us  with  their  freedom  and 
beauty,  do  not  give  the  best  satisfac¬ 
tion  as  motives  for  interior  decoration. 
Construction  in  the  architectural  sense 

_ the  strength  and  squareness  of 

walls,  ceilings,  and  floors — seem  to  re¬ 
ject  the  yielding  character  of  design 
founded  upon  natural  forms,  and  de¬ 
mand  something  which  answers  more 
sympathetically  to  their  own  qualities. 
Perhaps  it  is  for  this  reason  that  we 
find  the  grouping  and  arrangement 
of  horizontal  and  perpendicular  lines 
and  blocks  in  the  old  Greek  borders 
so  everlastingly  satisfactory. 

It  is  the  principle  or  requirement, 
of  geometric  base  in  interior  design 
which,  coupled  with  our  natural  de¬ 
light  in  yielding  or  growing  forms, 
has  maintained  through  all  the  long 
history  of  decoration  what  is  called 
conventionalised  flower  design.  We 
find  this  in  every  form  or  method  of 
decorative  art,  from  embroidery  to 


56  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

sculpture,  from  the  Lotus  of  Egypt 
to  the  Rose  of  England,  and  although 
it  results  in  a  sort  of  crucifixion  of  the 
natural  beauty  of  the  flower,  in  the 
hands  of  great  designers  it  has  become 
an  authoritative  style  of  art. 

Of  course,  there  are  flower-forms 
which  are  naturally  geometric,  which 
have  conventionalised  themselves. 
Many  of  the  intricate  Moorish  frets 
and  Indian  carvings  are  literal  transla¬ 
tions  of  flower-forms  geometrically  re¬ 
peated,  and  here  they  lend  themselves 
so  perfectly  to  the  decoration  of  even 
exterior  walls  that  the  fretted  arches 
of  some  Eastern  buildings  seem  al¬ 
most  to  have  grown  of  themselves, 
with  all  their  elaboration,  into  the 
world  of  nature  and  art. 

The  separate  flowers  of  the  grace¬ 
fully  tossing  lilac  plumes,  and  the 
five-  and  six-leaved  flowers  of  the  pink, 
have  become  in  this  way  a  very  part 
of  the  everlasting  walls,  as  the  acan- 


THE  LAW  OF  APPROPRIATENESS  57 

thus  leaf  has  become  the  marble  blos¬ 
som  ot  thousands  of  indestructible 
columns. 

These  are  the  classics  of  design 
and  hold  the  same  relation  to  orna¬ 
ment  printed  on  paper  and  silk  that 
we  find  in  the  music  of  the  Psalms, 
as  compared  with  the  tinkle  of  the 
ballad. 

There  are  other  methods  of  deco¬ 
ration  in  oils  which  will  meet  the 
wants  of  the  many  who  like  to  exer¬ 
cise  their  own  artistic  feelings  and  abil¬ 
ity  in  their  houses  or  rooms.  The 
painting  of  flower-friezes  upon  can¬ 
vas  which  can  afterward  be  mounted 
upon  the  wall  is  a  never-ending  source 
of  pleasure  ;  and  many  of  these  friezes 
have  a  charm  and  intimacy  which  no 
merely  professional  painter  can  rival. 
These  are  especially  suitable  for  bed¬ 
rooms,  since  there  they  may  be  as  per¬ 
sonal  as  the  inmate  pleases  without 
undue  unveiling  of  thoughts,  fancies, 


<j8  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

or  personal  experiences  to  the  public. 
A  favourite  flower  or  a  favourite  motto 
or  selection  may  be  the  motive  of  a 
charming  decoration,  if  the  artist  has 
sufficient  art-knowledge  to  subordi¬ 
nate  it  to  its  architectural  juxtaposi¬ 
tion.  A  narrow  border  of  fixed  re¬ 
peating  forms  like  a  rug-border  will 
often  fulfil  the  necessity  for  architect- 

J 

ural  lines,  and  confine  the  flower- 
border  into  limits  which  justify  its 
freedom  of  composition. 

If  one  wishes  to  mount  a  favourite 
motto  or  quotation  on  the  walls, 
where  it  may  give  constant  suggestion 
or  pleasure — or  even  be  a  help  to 
thoughtful  and  conscientious  living — 
there  can  be  no  better  fashion  than 
the  style  of  the  old  illuminated  mis¬ 
sals.  Dining  -  rooms  and  chimney- 
pieces  are  often  very  appropriately 
decorated  in  this  way ;  the  words 
running  on  scrolls  which  are  half  un¬ 
rolled  and  half  hidden,  and  showing 


THE  LAW  OF  APPROPRIATENESS  59 

a  conventionalised  background  of 
fruit  and  flowers. 

In  all  these  things  the  knowingness , 
which  is  the  result  of  study,  tells  very 
strongly — and  it  is  quite  worth  while 
to  give  a  good  deal  ot  study  to  the 
subject  of  this  kind  of  decoration  be¬ 
fore  expending  the  requisite  amount 
of  work  upon  a  painted  frieze. 

Canvas  friezes  have  the  excellent 
merit  of  being  not  only  durable  and 
cleanable,  but  they  belong  to  the 
category  of  pictures ;  to  what  Ruskin 
calls  “  portable  art,”  and  one  need 
not  grudge  the  devotion  of  consider¬ 
able  time,  study,  and  effort  to  their 
doing,  since  they  are  really  detachable 
property,  and  can  be  removed  from 
one  house  or  room  and  carried  to 
another  at  the  owner’s  or  artist’s  will. 

There  is  room  for  the  exercise  of 
much  artistic  ability  in  this  direction, 
as  the  fact  of  being  able  to  paint  the 
decoration  in  parts  and  afterward 


60  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

place  it,  makes  it  possible  for  an 
amateur  to  do  much  for  the  enhance¬ 
ment  of  her  own  house. 

More  than  any  other  room  in  the 
house,  the  bedroom  will  show  per¬ 
sonal  character.  Even  when  it  is  not 
planned  for  particular  occupation,  the 
characteristics  of  the  inmate  will  write 
themselves  unmistakably  in  the  room. 
If  the  college  boy  is  put  in  the  white 
and  gold  bedroom  for  even  a  vacation 
period,  there  will  shortly  come  into 
its  atmosphere  an  element  of  sporting 
and  out-of-door  life.  Banners  and 
balls  and  bats,  and  emblems  of  the 
“  wild  thyme  ”  order  will  colour  its 
whiteness ;  and  life  of  the  growing 
kind  make  itself  felt  in  the  midst 
of  sanctity.  In  the  same  way,  girls 
would  change  the  bare  asceticism  of  a 
monk’s  cell  into  a  bower  of  lilies  and 
roses ;  a  fit  place  for  youth  and  un¬ 
praying  innocence. 

The  bedrooms  of  a  house  are  a 


THE  LAW  OF  APPROPRIATENESS  61 

pretty  sure  test  of  the  liberality  of 
mind  and  understanding  ol  character 
of  the  mother  or  house-ruler.  As  each 
room  is  in  a  certain  sense  the  home 
of  the  individual  occupant,  almost  the 
shell  of  his  or  her  mind,  there  will  be 
something  narrow  and  despotic  in  the 
house-rules  if  this  is  not  allowed.  et, 
even  individuality  of  taste  and  expres¬ 
sion  must  scrupulously  follow  sanitary 
laws  in  the  furnishing  of  the  bedroom. 
u  Stuffy  things  ”  of  any  sort  should  be 
avoided.  The  study  should  be  to 
make  it  beautiful  without  such  things, 
and  a  liberal  use  of  washable  textiles 
in  curtains,  portieres,  bed  and  table 
covers,  will  give  quite  as  much  sense 
of  luxury  as  heavily  papered  walls  and 
costly  upholstery.  In  fact,  one  may 
run  through  all  the  variations  from 
the  daintiest  and  most  befrilled  and 
elegant  of  guests’  bedrooms,  to  the 
<<  boys’  room,”  which  includes  all  or 
any  of  the  various  implements  of  sport 


62  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

or  the  hobbies  of  the  boy  collector, 
and  yet  keep  inviolate  the  principles 
of  harmony,  colour,  and  appropriate¬ 
ness  to  use,  and  so  accomplish  beauty. 

The  absolute  ruling  of  light,  air,  and 
cleanliness  are  quite  compatible  with 
individual  expression. 

It  is  this  characteristic  aspect  of  the 
different  rooms  which  makes  up  the 
beauty  of  the  house  as  a  whole.  If 
the  purpose  of  each  is  left  to  develop 
itself  through  good  conditions,  the 
whole  will  make  that  most  delightful 
of  earthly  things,  a  beautiful  home. 


CHAPTER  VI 

KITCHENS 

HPHE  kitchen  is  an  important  part 
A  of  the  perfect  house  and  should 
be  a  recognised  sharer  in  its  quality 
of  beauty;  not  alone  the  beauty  which 
consists  of  a  successful  adaptation  of 
means  to  ends,  but  the  kind  which  is 
independently  and  positively  attrac¬ 
tive  to  the  eye. 

In  costly  houses  it  is  not  hard  to 
attain  this  quality  or  the  rarer  one  of 
a  union  of  beauty,  with  perfect  adap¬ 
tation  to  use  ;  but  where  it  must  be 
reached  by  comparatively  inexpensive 
methods,  the  difficulty  is  greater. 

Tiled  walls,  impervious  to  moist¬ 
ure,  and  repellent  of  fumes,  are  ideal 
boundaries  of  a  kitchen,  and  may  be 
beautiful  in  colour,  as  well  as  virtu¬ 
ous  in  conduct.  They  may  even  be 


64  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

laid  with  gradations  of  alluring  min¬ 
eral  tints,  but,  of  course,  this  is  out  of 
the  question  in  cheap  buildings ;  and 
in  demonstrating  the  possibility  of 
beauty  and  intrinsic  merit  in  small  and 
comparatively  inexpensive  houses,  tiles 
and  marbles  must  be  ruled  out  of  the 
scheme  of  kitchen  perfection.  Plas¬ 
ter,  painted  in  agreeable  tints  of  oil 
colour  is  commendable,  but  one  can 
do  better  by  covering  the  walls  with 
the  highly  enamelled  oil-cloth  com¬ 
monly  used  for  kitchen  tables  and 
shelves.  This  material  is  quite  mar¬ 
vellous  in  its  combination  of  use  and 
effect.  Its  possibilities  were  discovered 
by  a  young  housewife  whose  small 
kitchen  formed  part  of  a  city  apart¬ 
ment,  and  whose  practical  sense  was 
joined  to  a  discursive  imagination. 
After  this  achievement— which  she 
herself  did  not  recognise  as  a  stroke  of 
genius — she  added  a  narrow  shelf  run¬ 
ning  entirely  around  the  room,  which 


KITCHENS 


65 


carried  a  decorative  row  of  blue 
willow-pattern  plates.  A  dresser, 
hung  with  a  graduated  assortment  of 
blue  enamelled  sauce-pans,  and  other 
kitchen  implements  of  the  same  en¬ 
ticing  ware,  a  floor  covered  with  the 
heaviest  of  oil-cloth,  laid  in  small  dia¬ 
mond-shapes  of  blue,  between  blocks 
of  white,  like  a  mosaic  pavement,  were 
the  features  of  a  kitchen  which  was, 
and  is,  after  several  years  of  strenuous 
wear,  a  joy  to  behold.  It  was  from  the 
first,  not  only  a  delight  to  the  clever 
young  housewife  and  her  friends,  but 
it  performed  the  miracle  of  changing 
the  average  servant  into  a  careful  and 
excellent  one,  zealous  for  the  clean¬ 
liness  and  perfection  of  her  small 
domain,  and  performing  her  kitchen 
functions  with  unexampled  neatness. 

The  mistress — who  had  standards 
of  perfection  in  all  things,  whether 
great  or  small,  and  was  moreover  of 
Southern  blood — confessed  that  her 


66  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

ideal  of  service  in  her  glittering  kitch¬ 
en  was  not  a  clever  red-haired  Hiber¬ 
nian,  but  a  slim  mulatto,  wearing  a 
snow-white  turban  ;  and  this  long¬ 
ing  seemed  so  reasonable,  and  so  im¬ 
pressed  my  fancy,  that  whenever  I 
think  of  the  shining  blue-and-silver 
kitchen,  I  seem  to  see  within  it  the 
graceful  sway  of  figure  and  coffee- 
coloured  face  which  belongs  to  the 
half-breed  African  race,  certain  rare 
specimens  of  which  are  the  most  beau¬ 
tiful  of  domestic  adjuncts. 

I  have  used  this  expedient  of  oil- 
cloth-covered  walls— for  which  I  am 
anxious  to  give  the  inventor  due  credit 
—in  many  kitchens,  and  certain  bath¬ 
rooms,  and  always  with  success. 

It  must  be  applied  as  if  it  were 
wall-paper,  except  that,  as  it  is  a  heavy 
material,  the  paste  must  be  thicker. 
It  is  also  well  to  have  in  it  a  small 
proportion  of  carbolic  acid,  both  as  a 
disinfectant  and  a  deterrent  to  paste- 


KITCHENS 


67 


loving  mice,  or  any  other  household 
pest.  The  cloth  must  be  carefully 
fitted  into  corners,  and  whatever  shelv¬ 
ing  or  wood  fittings  are  used  in  the 
room,  must  be  placed  against  it,  after 
it  is  applied,  instead  of  having  the 
cloth  cut  and  fitted  around  them. 

When  well  mounted,  it  makes  a 
solid,  porcelain-like  wall,  to  which 
dust  and  dirt  will  not  easily  adhere, 
and  which  can  be  as  easily  and  effect¬ 
ually  cleaned  as  if  it  were  really  por¬ 
celain  or  marble. 

Such  wall  treatment  will  go  far 
toward  making  a  beautiful  kitchen. 
Add  to  this  a  well-arranged  dresser 
for  blue  or  white  kitchen  china,  with 
a  closed  cabinet  for  the  heavy  iron 
utensils  which  can  hardly  be  included 
in  any  scheme  of  kitchen  beauty ; 
curtained  cupboards  and  short  win¬ 
dow-hangings  of  blue,  or  “  Turkey 
red” — which  are  invaluable  for  colour, 
and  always  washable  \  a  painted  floor 


68  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

— which  is  far  better  than  oil-cloth, 
and  one  has  the  elements  of  a  satis¬ 
factory  scheme  of  beauty. 

A  French  kitchen,  with  its  white¬ 
washed  walls,  its  shining  range  and 
rows  upon  rows  of  gleaming  copper- 
ware,  is  an  attractive  subject  for  a 
painter;  and  there  is  no  reason  why 
an  American  kitchen,  in  a  house  dis¬ 
tinguished  for  beauty  in  all  its  family 
and  semi-public  rooms,  should  not 
also  be  beautiful  in  the  rooms  devot¬ 
ed  to  service.  We  can  if  we  will 
make  much  even  in  a  decorative  way 
of  our  enamelled  and  aluminum  kitch¬ 
en-ware;  we  may  hang  it  in  graduated 
rows  over  the  chimney-space- — as  the 
French  cook  parades  her  coppers — 
and  arrange  these  necessary  things 
with  an  eye  to  effect,  while  we  secure 
perfect  convenience  of  use.  They 
are  all  pleasant  of  aspect  if  care  and 
thought  are  devoted  to  their  arrange¬ 
ment,  and  it  is  really  of  quite  as 


KITCHENS 


69 


much  value  to  the  family  to  have  a 
charming  and  perfectly  appointed 
kitchen,  as  to  possess  a  beautiful  and 
comfortable  parlour  or  sitting-room, 

Every  detail  should  be  considered 
from  the  double  point  of  view  of  use 
and  effect.  If  the  curtains  answer 
the  two  purposes  of  shading  sunlight, 
or  securing  privacy  at  night,  and  of 
giving  pleasing  colour  and  contrast  to 
the  general  tone  of  the  interior,  they 
perform  a  double  function,  each  of 
of  which  is  valuable. 

If  the  chairs  are  chosen  for  strength 
and  use,  and  are  painted  or  stained  to 
match  the  colour  of  the  floor,  they  add 
to  the  satisfaction  of  the  eye,  as  well 
as  minister  to  the  house  service.  A 
pursuance  of  this  thought  adds  to  the 
harmony  of  the  house  both  in  aspect 
and  actual  beauty  of  living.  Of 
course  in  selecting  such  furnishings  of 
the  kitchen  as  chairs,  one  must  bear 
in  mind  that  even  their  legitimate 


70  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

use  may  include  standing,  as  well  as 
sitting  upon  them;  that  they  may  be 
made  temporary  resting-places  for 
scrubbing  pails,  brushes,  and  other 
cleaning  necessities,  and  therefore  they 
must  be  made  of  painted  wood  ;  but 
this  should  not  discourage  the  pro¬ 
vision  of  a  cane-seated  rocking-chair 
for  each  servant,  as  a  comfort  for 
weary  bones  when  the  day’s  work  is 
over. 

In  establishments  which  include  a 
servants’  dining-  or  sitting-room,  these 
moderate  luxuries  are  a  thing  of 
course,  but  in  houses  where  at  most 
but  two  maids  are  employed  they  are 
not  always  considered,  although  they 
certainly  should  be. 

If  a  corner  can  be  appropriated  to 
evening  leisure — where  there  is  room 
for  a  small,  brightly  covered  table, 
a  lamp,  a  couple  of  rocking-chairs, 
work-baskets  and  a  book  or  maga¬ 
zine,  it  answers  in  a  small  way  to  the 


KITCHENS 


7 1 


family  evening-room,  where  all  gath¬ 
er  for  rest  and  comfort. 

There  is  no  reason  why  the  wall 
space  above  it  should  not  have  its  cabi¬ 
net  for  photographs  and  the  usually 
cherished  prayer-book  which  maids 
love  both  to  possess  and  display.  Such 
possessions  answer  exactly  to  the  bric- 
a-brac  of  the  drawing-room;  minister¬ 
ing  to  the  same  human  instinct  in  its 
primitive  form,  and  to  the  inherent 
enjoyment  of  the  beautiful  which  is 
the  line  of  demarcation  between  the 
tribes  of  animals  and  those  of  men. 

If  one  can  use  this  distinctly  hu¬ 
man  trait  as  a  lever  to  raise  crude 
humanity  into  the  higher  region  of 
the  virtues,  it  is  certainly  worth  while 
to  consider  pots  and  pans  from  the 
point  of  view  of  their  decorative 
ability. 


CHAPTER  VII 

COLOUR  WITH  REFERENCE  TO  LIGHT 

JN  choosing  colour  for  walls  and 
ceilings,  it  is  most  necessary  to 
consider  the  special  laws  which  govern 
its  application  to  house  interiors. 

The  tint  of  any  particular  room 
should  be  chosen  not  only  with  ref¬ 
erence  to  personal  liking,  but  first  of 
all,  to  the  quantity  and  quality  of 
light  which  pervades  it.  A  north 
room  will  require  warm  and  bright 
treatment,  warm  reds  and  golden 
browns,  or  pure  gold  colours.  Gold- 
colour  used  in  sash  curtains  will  give 
an  effect  of  perfect  sunshine  in  a  dark 
and  shadowy  room,  but  the  same 
treatment  in  a  room  fronting  the 
south  would  produce  an  almost  in¬ 
supportable  brightness. 

I  will  illustrate  the  modifications 


72 


COLOUR  WITH  REFERENCE  TO  LIGHT  73 

made  necessary  in  tint  by  different 
exposure  to  light,  by  supposing  that 
some  one  member  of  the  family  pre¬ 
fers  yellow  to  all  other  colours,  one 
who  has  enough  of  the  chameleon 
in  her  nature  to  feel  an  instinct  to 
bask  in  sunshine.  I  will  also  suppose 
that  the  room  most  conveniently  de¬ 
voted  to  the  occupation  of  this  mem¬ 
ber  has  a  southern  exposure.  If  yel¬ 
low  must  be  used  in  her  room,  the 
quality  of  it  should  be  very  different 
from  that  which  could  be  properly 
and  profitably  used  in  a  room  with  a 
northern  exposure,  and  it  should  dif¬ 
fer  not  only  in  intensity,  but  actually 
in  tint.  If  it  is  necessary,  on  account 
of  personal  preference,  to  use  yellow 
in  a  sunny  room,  it  should  be  lemon, 
instead  of  ochre  or  gold-coloured 
yellow,  because  the  latter  would  re¬ 
peat  sunlight.  There  are  certain 
shades  of  yellow,  where  white  has 
been  largely  used  in  the  mixture, 


74 


PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 


which  are  capable  of  greenish  reflec¬ 
tions.  This  is  where  the  white  is  of 
so  pure  a  quality  as  to  suggest  blue, 
and  consequently  under  the  influence 
of  yellow  to  suggest  green.  We  often 
find  yellow  dyes  in  silks  the  shadows 
of  which  are  positive  fawn  colour  or 
even  green,  instead  of  orange  as  we 
might  expect ;  still,  even  with  modi¬ 
fications,  yellow  should  properly  be 
reserved  for  sunless  rooms,  where  it 
acts  the  part  almost  of  the  blessed  sun 
itself  in  giving  cheerfulness  and  light. 
Going  from  a  sun-lighted  atmosphere, 
or  out  of  actual  sunlight  into  a  yel¬ 
low  room,  one  would  miss  the  sense 
of  shelter  which  is  so  grateful  to 
eyes  and  senses  a  little  dazzled  by 
the  brilliance  of  out-of-door  lights ; 
whereas  a  room  darkened  or  shaded 
by  a  piazza,  or  somewhat  chilled  by 
a  northern  exposure  and  want  of  sun, 
would  be  warmed  and  comforted  by 
tints  of  gold-coloured  yellow. 


COLOUR  WITH  REFERENCE  TO  LIGHT  75 

Interiors  with  a  southern  exposure 
should  be  treated  with  cool,  light 
colours,  blues  in  various  shades,  water- 
greens,  and  silvery  tones  which  will 
contrast  with  the  positive  yellow  of 
sunlight. 

It  is  by  no  means  a  merely  arbi¬ 
trary  rule.  Colours  are  actually  warm 
or  cold  in  temperature,  as  well  as  in 
effect  upon  the  eye  or  the  imagina¬ 
tion,  in  fact  the  words  cover  a  long- 
tested  fact.  I  remember  being  told 
by  a  painter  of  his  placing  a  red  sun¬ 
set  landscape  upon  the  flat  roof  of  a 
studio  building  to  dry,  and  on  going 
to  it  a  few  hours  afterward  he  found 
the  surface  of  it  so  warm  to  the  touch 
— so  sensibly  warmer  than  the  gray 
and  blue  and  green  pictures  around 
it — that  he  brought  a  thermometer  to 
test  it,  and  found  it  had  acquired  and 
retained  heat.  It  was  actually  warm¬ 
er  by  degrees  than  the  gray  and  blue 
pictures  in  the  same  sun  exposure. 


7 6  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

We  instinctively  wear  warm  colours 
in  winter  and  dispense  with  them  in 
summer,  and  this  simple  fact  may  ex¬ 
plain  the  art  which  allots  what  we 
call  warm  colour  to  rooms  without 
sun.  When  we  say  warm  colours,  we 
mean  yellows,  reds  with  all  their 
gradations,  gold  or  sun  browns,  and 
dark  browns  and  black.  When  we 
say  cool  colours — whites,  blues,  grays, 
and  cold  greens — for  greens  may  be 
warm  or  cold,  according  to  their 
composition  or  intensity.  A  water- 
green  is  a  cold  colour,  so  is  a  pure 
emerald  green,  so  also  a  blue-green ; 
while  an  olive,  or  a  gold-green  comes 
into  the  category  of  warm  colours. 
This  is  because  it  is  a  composite  col¬ 
our  made  of  a  union  of  warm  and 
cold  colours;  the  brown  and  yellow 
in  its  composition  being  in  excess  of 
the  blue;  as  pink  also,  which  is  a 
mixture  of  red  and  white;  and  lav¬ 
ender,  which  is  a  mixture  of  red,  white, 


COLOUR  WITH  REFERENCE  TO  LIGHT  77 

and  blue,  stand  as  intermediate  be¬ 
tween  two  extremes. 

Having  duly  considered  the  effect 
of  light  upon  colour,  we  may  fear¬ 
lessly  choose  tints  for  every  room  ac¬ 
cording  to  personal  preferences  or 
tastes.  If  we  like  one  warm  colour 
better  than  another,  there  is  no  rea¬ 
son  why  that  one  should  not  predom¬ 
inate  in  every  room  in  the  house 
which  has  a  shadow  exposure.  If  we 
like  a  cold  colour  it  should  be  used 
in  many  of  the  sunny  rooms. 

I  believe  we  do  not  give  enough 
importance  to  this  matter  of  personal 
liking  in  tints.  We  select  our  friends 
from  sympathy.  As  a  rule,  we  do 
not  philosophise  much  about  it,  al¬ 
though  we  may  recognise  certain 
principles  in  our  liking ;  it  is  those  to 
whom  our  hearts  naturally  open  that 
we  invite  in  and  have  joy  in  their 
companionship,  and  we  might  surely 
follow  our  likings  in  the  matter  of 


78  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

colour,  as  well  as  in  friendship,  and 
thereby  add  much  to  our  happiness. 
Curiously  enough  we  often  speak  of 
the  colour  of  a  mind — and  I  once 
knew  a  child  who  persisted  in  calling 
people  by  the  names  of  colours ;  not 
the  colour  of  their  clothes,  but  some 
mind-tint  which  he  felt.  “The  blue 
lady”  was  his  especial  favourite,  and  I 
have  no  doubt  the  presence  or  ab¬ 
sence  of  that  particular  colour  made 
a  difference  in  his  content  all  the 
days  of  his  life. 

The  colour  one  likes  is  better  for 
tranquillity  and  enjoyment — more 
conducive  to  health ;  and  exercises 
an  actual  living  influence  upon 
moods.  For  this  reason,  if  no  other, 
the  colour  of  a  room  should  never  be 
arbitrarily  prescribed  or  settled  for  the 
one  who  is  to  be  its  occupant.  It  should 
be  as  much  a  matter  of  nature  as  the 
lining  of  a  shell  is  to  the  mussel,  or  as 
the  colour  of  the  wings  of  a  butterfly. 


COLOUR  WITH  REFERENCE  TO  LIGHT  79 

In  fact  the  mind  which  we  cannot  see 
may  have  a  colour  of  its  own,  and  it 
is  natural  that  it  should  choose  to 
dwell  within  its  own  influence. 

We  do  not  know  why  we  like  cer¬ 
tain  colours,  but  we  do,  and  let  that 
suffice,  and  let  us  live  with  them,  as 
gratefully  as  we  should  for  more  ex¬ 
plainable  ministry. 

If  colours  which  we  like  have  a 
soothing  effect  upon  us,  those  which 
we  do  not  like  are,  on  the  other 
hand,  an  unwelcome  influence.  If  a 
woman  says  in  her  heart,  I  hate  green, 
or  red,  or  I  dislike  any  one  colour, 
and  then  is  obliged  to  live  in  its 
neighbourhood,  she  will  find  herself 
dwelling  with  an  enemy.  We  all 
know  that  there  are  colours  of  which 
a  little  is  enjoyable  when  a  mass 
would  be  unendurable.  Predominant 
scarlet  would  be  like  close  compan¬ 
ionship  with  a  brass  band,  but  a  note 
of  scarlet  is  one  of  the  most  valuable 


80  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

of  sensations.  The  gray  compounded 
of  black  and  white  would  be  a  wet 
blanket  to  all  bubble  of  wit  or  spring 
of  fancy,  but  the  shadows  of  rose 
colour  are  gray,  pink-tinted  it  is 
true ;  indeed  the  shadow  of  pink 
used  to  be  known  by  the  name  of 
ashes  of  roses .  I  remember  seeing  once 
in  Paris — that  home  of  bad  general 
decoration — a  room  in  royal  purples; 
purple  velvet  on  walls,  furniture,  and 
hangings.  One  golden  Rembrandt 
in  the  middle  of  a  long  wall,  and  a 
great  expanse  of  ochre-coloured  par- 
quetted  floor  were  all  that  saved  it 
from  the  suggestion  of  a  royal  tomb. 
As  it  was,  I  left  the  apartment  with  a 
feeling  of  treading  softly  as  when  we 
pass  through  a  door  hung  with  crape. 
Vagaries  of  this  kind  are  remediable 
when  they  occur  in  cravats,  or  bon¬ 
nets,  or  gloves— but  a  room  in  the 
wrong  colour!  Saints  and  the  angels 
preserve  us! 


SITTING-ROOM  IN  "WILD  WOOD.”  ONTEORA  (BELONGING  TO  MISS  LUISITA  LELAND) 


COLOUR  WITH  REFERENCE  TO  LIGHT  81 

The  number,  size,  and  placing  of 
the  windows  will  greatly  affect  the 
intensity  ol  colour  to  be  used.  It 
must  always  be  remembered  that  any 
interior  is  dark  as  compared  with  out- 
of-doors,  and  that  in  the  lightest 
room  there  will  be  dark  corners  or 
spaces  where  the  colour  chosen  as 
chief  tint  will  seem  much  darker  than 
it  really  is.  A  paper  or  textile  chos¬ 
en  in  a  good  light  will  look  several 
shades  darker  when  placed  in  large 
unbroken  masses  or  spaces  upon  the 
wall,  and  a  fully  furnished  room  will 
generally  be  much  darker  when  com¬ 
pleted  than  might  be  expected  in 
planning  it.  For  this  reason,  in 
choosing  a  favourite  tint,  it  is  better 
on  many  accounts  to  choose  it  in  as 
light  a  shade  as  one  finds  agreeable. 
It  can  be  repeated  in  stronger  tones 
in  furniture  or  in  small  and  unim¬ 
portant  furnishings  of  the  room,  but 
the  wall  tone  should  never  be  deeper 


82  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

than  medium  in  strength,  at  the  risk 
of  having  all  the  light  absorbed  by 
the  colour,  and  of  losing  a  sense  of 
atmosphere  in  the  room.  There  is 
another  reason  for  this,  which  is  that 
many  colours  are  agreeable,  even  to 
their  lovers,  only  in  light  tones.  The 
moment  they  get  below  medium  they 
become  insistent,  and  make  them¬ 
selves  of  too  much  importance.  In 
truth  colour  has  qualities  which  are 
almost  personal,  and  is  well  worth 
studying  in  all  its  peculiarities,  be¬ 
cause  of  its  power  to  affect  our  hap¬ 
piness. 

The  principles  of  proper  use  of 
colour  in  house  interiors  are  not  diffi¬ 
cult  to  master.  It  is  unthinking,  un- 
reflective  action  which  makes  so  many 
unrestful  interiors  of  homes.  The 
creator  of  a  home  should  consider,  in 
the  first  place,  that  it  is  a  matter  as 
important  as  climate,  and  as  difficult 
to  get  away  from,  and  that  the  first 


COLOUR  WITH  REFERENCE  TO  LIGHT  83 

shades  of  colour  used  in  a  room  upon 
walls  or  ceiling,  must  govern  every¬ 
thing  else  that  enters  in  the  way  of 
furnishing;  that  the  colour  of  walls 
prescribes  that  which  must  be  used  in 
floors,  curtains,  and  furniture.  Not 
that  these  must  necessarily  be  of  the 
same  tint  as  walls,  but  that  wall-tints 
must  govern  the  choice. 

All  this  makes  it  necessary  to  take 
first  steps  carefully,  to  select  for  each 
room  the  colour  which  will  best  suit 
the  taste,  feeling,  or  bias  of  the  occu¬ 
pant,  always  considering  the  exposure 
of  the  room  and  the  use  of  it. 

After  the  relation  of  colour  to 
light  is  established— with  personal 
preferences  duly  taken  into  account 
— the  next  law  is  that  of  gradation. 
The  strongest,  and  generally  the  pur¬ 
est,  tones  of  colour  belong  naturally 
at  the  base,  and  the  floor  of  a  room 
means  the  base  upon  which  the 
scheme  of  decoration  is  to  be  built. 


PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 


84 

The  carpet,  or  floor  covering,  should 
carry  the  strongest  tones.  If  a  single 
tint  is  to  be  used,  the  walls  must  take 
the  next  gradation,  and  the  ceiling 
the  last.  These  gradations  must  be 
far  enough  removed  from  each  other 
in  depth  of  tone  to  be  quite  apparent, 
but  not  to  lose  their  relation.  The 
connecting  grades  may  appear  in  fur¬ 
niture  covering  and  draperies,  thus  giv¬ 
ing  different  values  in  the  same  tone, 
the  relation  between  them  being  per¬ 
fectly  apparent.  These  three  masses 
of  related  colour  are  the  groundwork 
upon  which  one  can  play  infinite  va¬ 
riations,  and  is  really  the  same  law 
upon  which  a  picture  is  composed. 
There  are  foreground,  middle-dis¬ 
tance,  and  sky — -and  in  a  properly 
coloured  room,  the  floors,  walls,  and 
ceiling  bear  the  same  relation  to  each 
other  as  the  grades  of  colour  in  a 
picture,  or  in  a  landscape. 

Fortunately  we  keep  to  this  law 


COLOUR  WITH  REFERENCE  TO  LIGHT  85 

almost  by  instinct,  and  yet  I  have 
seen  a  white-carpeted  floor  in  a  room 
with  a  painted  ceiling  of  considerable 
depth  of  colour.  Imagine  the  effect 
where  this  rule  of  gradation  or  as¬ 
cending  scale  is  reversed.  A  tinted 
floor  of  cream  colour,  or  even  white, 
and  a  ceiling  as  deep  in  colour  as  a 
landscape.  One  feels  as  if  they  them¬ 
selves  were  reversed,  and  standing 
upon  their  heads.  Certainly  if  we 
ignore  this  law  we  lose  our  sense  of 
base  or  foundation,  and  although 
we  may  not  know  exactly  why,  we 
shall  miss  the  restfulness  of  a  prop¬ 
erly  constructed  scheme  of  decora¬ 
tion. 

The  rule  of  gradation  includes 
also  that  of  massing  of  colour.  In  all 
simple  treatment  of  interiors,  what¬ 
ever  colour  is  chosen  should  be  al¬ 
lowed  space  enough  to  establish  its 
influence,  broadly  and  freely,  and 
here  again  we  get  a  lesson  from  nat- 


86  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

ure  in  the  massing  of  colour.  It 
should  not  be  broken  into  patches 
and  neutralised  by  divisions,  but  used 
in  large  enough  spaces  to  dominate, 
or  bring  into  itself  or  its  own  influ¬ 
ence  all  that  is  placed  in  the  room. 
If  this  rule  is  disregarded  every  piece 
of  furniture  unrelated  to  the  whole 
becomes  a  spot,  it  has  no  real  con¬ 
nection  with  the  room,  and  the  room 
itself,  instead  of  a  harmonious  and 
delightful  influence,  akin  to  that  of 
a  sun-flushed  dawn  or  a  sunset  sky, 
is  like  a  picture  where  there  is  no 
composition,  or  a  book  where  inci¬ 
dent  is  jumbled  together  without  re¬ 
lation  to  the  story.  In  short,  plac¬ 
ing  of  colour  in  large  uniform  masses 
used  in  gradation  is  the  groundwork 
of  all  artistic  effect  in  interiors.  As  I 
have  said,  it  is  the  same  rule  that  gov¬ 
erns  pictures,  the  general  tone  may  be 
green  or  blue,  or  a  division  of  each, 
but  to  be  a  perfect  and  harmonious 


COLOUR  WITH  REFERENCE  TO  LIGHT  87 

view,  every  detail  must  relate  to  one 
or  both  of  these  tints. 

In  formulating  thus  far  the  rules 
for  use  of  colour  in  rooms,  we  have 
touched  upon  three  principles  which 
are  equally  binding  in  interiors, 
whether  of  a  cottage  or  a  palace  ;  the 
first  is  that  of  colour  in  relation  to 
light,  the  second  of  colour  in  gra¬ 
dation,  and  the  third  of  colour  in 
masses. 

A  house  in  which  walls  and  ceil¬ 
ings  are  simply  well  coloured  or  cov¬ 
ered,  has  advanced  very  far  toward 
the  home  which  is  the  rightful  en¬ 
dowment  of  every  human  being. 
The  variations  of  treatment,  which 
pertain  to  more  costly  houses,  the 
application  of  design  in  borders  and 
frieze  spaces,  walls,  wainscots,  and 
ceilings,  are  details  which  will  proba¬ 
bly  call  for  artistic  advice  and  pro¬ 
fessional  knowledge,  since  in  these 
things  it  is  easy  to  err  in  misapplied 


88  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

decoration.  The  advance  from  per¬ 
fect  simplicity  to  selected  and  beauti¬ 
ful  ornament  marks  not  only  the  de¬ 
gree  of  cost  but  of  knowledge  which 
it  is  in  the  power  of  the  house-owner 
to  command.  The  elaboration  which 
is  the  privilege  of  more  liberal  means 
and  the  use  of  artistic  experience  in 
decoration  on  a  larger  scale. 

The  smaller  house  shares  in  the 
advantage  oi  beautiful  colour,  correct 
principles,  and  appropriate  treatment 
equally  with  the  more  costly.  The 
variations  do  not  falsify  principles. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
WALLS,  CEILINGS,  AND  FLOORS 

rpHE 

true  principle  of  wall  treat¬ 
ment  is  to  make  the  boundary 
stand  for  colour  and  beauty,  and  not 
alone  for  division  of  space. 

As  a  rule,  the  colour  treatment  of 
a  house  interior  must  begin  with  the 
walls,  and  it  is  fortunate  if  these  are 
blank  and  plain  as  in  most  new  houses 
with  uncoloured  ceilings,  flat  or  brok¬ 
en  with  mouldings  to  suit  the  style 
of  the  house. 

The  range  of  possible  treatment  is 
very  wide,  from  simple  tones  of  wall 
colour  against  which  quiet  cottage 
or  domestic  city  life  goes  on,  to  the 
elaboration  of  walls  of  houses  of  a 
different  grade,  where  stately  pag¬ 
eants  are  a  part  of  the  drama  of  daily 
life.  But  having  shown  that  certain 

89 


9° 


PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 


rules  are  applicable  to  both,  and  in¬ 
deed  necessary  to  success  in  both,  we 
may  choose  within  these  rules  any 
tint  or  colour  which  is  personally 
pleasing. 

Rooms  with  an  east  or  west  light 
may  carry  successfully  tones  of  any 
shade,  without  violating  fundamental 
laws. 

The  first  impression  of  a  room 
depends  upon  the  walls.  In  fact, 
rooms  are  good  or  bad,  agreeable  or 
ugly  in  exact  accordance  with  the 
wall-quality  and  treatment.  No  rich¬ 
ness  of  floor-covering,  draperies,  or 
furniture  can  minimise  their  influence. 

Perhaps  it  is  for  this  reason  that 
the  world  is  full  of  papers  and  other 
devices  for  making  walls  agreeable ; 
and  we  cannot  wonder  at  this,  when 
we  reflect  that  something  of  the  kind 
is  necessary  to  the  aspect  of  the  room, 
and  that  each  room  effects  for  the 
individual  exactly  what  the  outer 


WALLS,  CEILINGS,  AND  FLOORS  91 

walls  of  the  house  effect  for  the  fam¬ 
ily,  they  give  space  for  personal  pri¬ 
vacy  and  for  that  reserve  of  the  indi¬ 
vidual  which  is  the  earliest  effect  of 
luxury  and  comfort. 

It  is  certain  that  if  walls  are  not 
made  agreeable  there  is  in  them 
something  of  restraint  to  the  eye  and 
the  sense  which  is  altogether  disagree¬ 
able.  Apparent  confinement  within 
given  limits,  is,  on  the  whole,  repug¬ 
nant  to  either  the  natural  or  civilised 
man,  and  for  this  reason  we  are  con¬ 
stantly  tempted  to  disguise  the  limit 
and  to  cover  the  wall  in  such  a  way 
as  shall  interest  and  make  us  forget 
our  bounds.  In  this  case,  the  idea  of 
decoration  is,  to  make  the  walls  a 
barrier  of  colour  only,  instead  of  hard, 
unyielding  masonry;  to  take  away 
the  sense  of  being  shut  in  a  box,  and 
give  instead  freedom  to  thought  and 
pleasure  to  the  sense. 

It  is  the  effect  of  shut-in-ness  which 


92 


PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 


the  square  and  rigid  walls  of  a  room 
give  that  makes  drapery  so  effective 
and  welcome,  and  which  also  gives 
value  to  the  practice  of  covering  walls 
with  silks  or  other  textiles.  The 
softened  surface  takes  away  the  sense 
of  restraint.  We  hang  our  walls  with 
pictures,  or  cover  them  with  textiles, 
or  with  paper  which  carries  design,  or 
even  colour  them  with  pigments — 
something— anything,  which  will  dis¬ 
guise  a  restraining  bound,  or  make  it 
masquerade  as  a  luxury. 

This  effort  or  instinct  has  set  in 
motion  the  machinery  of  the  world. 
It  has  created  tapestries  and  brocades 
for  castle  and  palace,  and  invented 
cheap  substitutes  for  these  costly  prod¬ 
ucts,  so  that  the  smallest  and  poor¬ 
est  house  as  well  as  the  richest  can 
cover  its  walls  with  something  pleas¬ 
ant  to  the  eye  and  suggestive  to  the 
mind. 

It  is  one  of  the  privileges  and 


LARGE  SITTING-ROOM  IN  “STAR  ROCK”  COUNTRY  HOUSE 


I 


WALLS,  CEILINGS,  AND  FLOORS  93 

opportunities  of  art  to  invent  these 
disguises ;  and  to  do  it  so  thoroughly 
and  successfully  as  to  content  us  with 
facts  which  would  otherwise  be  disa¬ 
greeable.  And  we  do,  by  these  vari¬ 
ous  devices,  make  our  walls  so  hospi¬ 
table  to  our  thoughts  that  we  take 
positive  and  continual  pleasure  in 
them. 

We  do  this  chiefly,  perhaps,  by 
ministering  to  our  instinctive  love  of 
colour;  which  to  many  temperaments 
is  like  food  to  the  hungry,  and  satis¬ 
fies  as  insistent  a  demand  of  the  mind 
as  food  to  the  body. 

At  this  late  period  of  the  world 
we  are  the  inheritors  of  many  meth¬ 
ods  of  wall  disguise,  from  the  primi¬ 
tive  weavings  or  blanket  coverings 
with  which  nomadic  peoples  lined  the 
walls  of  their  tents,  or  the  arras  which 
in  later  days  covered  the  roughness 
and  rudeness  of  the  stone  walls  of 
kings  and  barons,  to  the  pictured 


94  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

tapestries  of  later  centuries.  This  lat¬ 
ter  achievement  of  art  manufacture 
has  outlived  and  far  outweighed  the 
others  in  value,  because  it  more  per¬ 
fectly  performs  the  object  of  its  crea¬ 
tion. 

Tapestries,  for  the  most  part,  offer 
us  a  semblance  of  nature,  and  cheat 
us  with  a  sense  of  unlimited  horizon. 
The  older  tapestries  give  us,  with 
this,  suggestions  of  human  life  and 
action  in  out-of-door  scenes  suffi¬ 
ciently  unrealistic  to  offer  a  vague 
dream  of  existence  in  fields  and  for¬ 
ests.  This  effectually  diverts  our 
minds  from  the  confinements  of  space, 
and  allows  us  the  freedom  of  nature. 

Probably  the  true  secret  of  the 
never-failing  appreciation  of  tapestries 
— from  the  very  beginning  of  their 
history  until  this  day — is  this  fact  of 
their  suggestiveness;  since  we  find 
that  damasks  of  silk  or  velvet  or  other 
costly  weavings,  although  far  surpass- 


WALLS,  CEILINGS,  AND  FLOORS  95 

ing  tapestries  in  texture  and  concen¬ 
tration  of  colour,  yet  lacking  their 
suggestiveness  to  the  mind,  can  never 
rival  them  in  the  estimation  of  the 
world.  Unhappily,  we  cannot  count 
veritable  tapestries  as  a  modern  re¬ 
course  in  wall-treatment,  since  we  are 
precluded  from  the  use  of  genuine 
ones  by  their  scarcity  and  cost. 

There  is  undoubtedly  a  peculiar 
richness  and  charm  in  a  tapestry-hung 
wall  which  no  other  wall  covering 
can  give;  yet  they  are  not  entirely 
appropriate  to  our  time.  They  be¬ 
long  to  the  period  of  windy  palaces 
and  enormous  enclosures,  and  are 
fitted  for  pageants  and  ceremonies, 
and  not  to  our  carefully  plastered, 
wind-tight  and  narrow  rooms.  Their 
mission  to-day  is  to  reproduce  for  us 
in  museums  and  collections  the  life 
of  yesterday,  so  full  of  pomp  and  al¬ 
most  barbaric  lack  of  domestic  com¬ 
fort.  In  studios  they  are  certainly 


g6  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

appropriate  and  suggestive,  but  in  pri¬ 
vate  houses  except  of  the  princely 
sort,  it  is  far  better  to  make  har¬ 
monies  with  the  things  of  to-day. 

Nevertheless  if  the  soul  craves  tap¬ 
estries  let  them  be  chosen  for  in¬ 
trinsic  beauty  and  perfect  preservation, 
instead  of  accepting  the  rags  of  the 
past  and  trying  to  create  with  them  a 
magnificence  which  must  be  incom¬ 
plete  and  shabby.  Considering,  as  I 
do,  that  tapestries  belong  to  the  life 
and  conditions  of  the  past,  where  the 
homeless  many  toiled  for  the  pam¬ 
pered  few,  and  not  to  the  homes  of 
to-day  where  the  man  of  moderate 
means  expects  beauty  in  his  home  as 
confidently  as  if  he  were  a  world 
ruler,  I  find  it  hardly  necessary  to  in¬ 
clude  them  in  the  list  of  means  of 
modern  decoration,  and  indeed  it  is 
not  necessary,  since  a  well-preserved 
tapestry  of  a  good  period,  and  of  a 
famous  manufacturer  or  origin,  is  so 


WALLS,  CEILINGS,  AND  FLOORS 


97 


costly  a  purchase  that  only  our  boun¬ 
teous  and  self-indulgent  millionaires 
would  venture  to  acquire  one  solely 
for  purposes  of  wall  decoration.  It 
would  be  purchased  as  a  specimen  of 
art  and  not  as  furnishing. 

Yet  I  know  one  instance  of  a  library 
where  a  genuine  old  foliage  tapestry 
has  been  cut  and  fitted  to  the  walls 
and  between  bookcases  and  doors, 
where  the  wood  of  the  room  is  in 
mahogany,  and  a  great  chimney-piece 
of  Caen  stone  of  Richardson’s  design¬ 
ing  fills  nearly  one  side  of  the  room. 
Of  course  the  tapestry  is  unapproach¬ 
able  in  effect  in  this  particular  place 
and  with  its  surroundings.  It  has  the 
richness  and  softness  of  velvet,  and 
the  red  of  the  mahogany  doors  and 
furniture  finds  exactly  its  foil  in  the 
blue  greens  and  soft  browns  of  the 
web,  while  the  polished  floor  and 
velvety  antique  rugs  bring  all  the 
richness  of  the  walls  down  to  one’s 


PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 


98 

feet  and  to  the  hearth  with  its  glow  of 
fire.  But  this  particular  room  hardly 
makes  an  example  for  general  follow¬ 
ing.  It  is  really  a  house  of  state,  a 
house  without  children,  one  in  which 
public  life  predominates. 

There  is  a  very  flagrant  far-away 
imitation  of  tapestry  which  is  so  far 
from  being  good  that  it  is  a  wonder 
it  has  had  even  a  moderate  success, 
imitation  which  does  not  even  at¬ 
tempt  the  decorative  effect  of  the 
genuine,  but  substitutes  upon  an  ad¬ 
mirably  woven  cotton  or  woollen  can¬ 
vas,  figure  panels,  copied  from  mod¬ 
ern  French  masters,  and  suggestive  of 
nothing  but  bad  art.  Yet  these  panels 
are  sometimes  used  (and  in  fact  are 
produced  for  the  purpose  of  being 
used)  precisely  as  a  genuine  tapestry 
would  be,  although  the  very  fact  of 
pretence  in  them,  brings  a  feeling 
of  untruth,  quite  at  variance  with  the 
principles  of  all  good  art.  The  oh- 


WALLS,  CEILINGS,  AND  FLOORS  99 

jection  to  pictures  transferred  to  tap¬ 
estries  holds  good,  even  when  the 
tapestries  are  genuine. 

The  great  cartoons  of  Raphael, 
still  to  be  seen  in  the  Kensington 
Museum,  which  were  drawn  and  col¬ 
oured  for  Flemish  weavers  to  copy, 
show  a  perfect  adaptation  to  the  me¬ 
dium  of  weaving,  while  the  paintings 
in  the  Vatican  by  the  same  great 
master  are  entirely  inappropriate  to 
textile  reproduction. 

A  picture  cannot  be  transposed  to 
different  substance  and  purpose  with¬ 
out  losing  the  qualities  which  make 
it  valuable.  The  double  effort  to  be 
both  a  tapestry  and  a  picture  is  futile, 
and  brings  into  disrepute  a  simple  art 
of  imitation  which  might  become  re¬ 
spectable  if  its  capabilities  were  right¬ 
ly  used. 

No  one  familiar  with  collections  of 
tapestries  can  fail  to  recognise  the 
largeness  and  simplicity  of  treatment 


IOO  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

peculiar  to  tapestry  subjects  as  con¬ 
trasted  with  the  elaboration  of  pict¬ 
ures. 

If  we  grant  that  in  this  modern 
world  of  hurry,  imitation  of  tapestries 
is  legitimate,  the  important  question 
is,  what  are  the  best  subjects,  and 
what  is  the  best  use  for  such  imita¬ 
tions? 

The  best  use  is  undoubtedly  that 
of  wall-covering;  and  that  was,  in¬ 
deed,  the  earliest  object  for  which 
they  were  created.  They  were  woven 
to  cover  great  empty  spaces  of  un¬ 
sightly  masonry;  and  they  are  still  in¬ 
finitely  useful  and  beautiful  in  grand 
apartments  whose  barren  spaces  are 
too  large  for  modern  pictures,  and 
which  need  the  disguise  of  a  sugges¬ 
tion  of  scenery  or  pictorial  subject. 

If  tapestries  must  be  painted,  let 
them  by  all  means  follow  the  style  of 
the  ancient  verdure  or  foliage  tapes¬ 
tries,  and  be  used  for  the  same  pur- 


WALLS,  CEILINGS,  AND  FLOORS  ioi 

pose — to  cover  an  otherwise  blank 
wall.  This  is  legitimate,  and  even 
beautiful,  but  it  is  painting, and  should 
be  frankly  acknowledged  to  be  such, 
and  no  attempt  made  to  have  them 
masquerade  as  genuine  and  costly 
weavings.  It  is  simply  and  always 
painting,  although  in  the  style  and 
spirit  of  early  tapestries?  Productions 
of  this  sort,  where  real  skill  in  textile 
painting  is  used,  are  quite  worthy  of 
admiration  and  respect. 

I  remember  seeing,  in  the  Swedish 
exhibit  of  women’s  work  in  the 
Woman’s  Building  at  the  Columbian 
Exposition,  a  screen  which  had  evi¬ 
dently  been  copied  from  an  old  bit 
of  verdure  tapestry.  At  the  base 
were  broad-leaved  water-plants,  each 
leaf  carefully  copied  in  blocks  and 
patches  of  colour,  with  even  the  ef¬ 
fect  of  the  little  empty  space — where 
one  thread  passes  to  the  back  in 
weaving,  to  make  room  for  one  of 


102  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

another  colour  brought  forward — 
imitated  by  a  dot  of  black  to  simu¬ 
late  the  tiny  shadow-filled  pen-point 
of  a  hole. 

Now  whether  this  was  art  or  not  I 
leave  to  French  critics  to  decide,  but 
it  was  at  least  admirable  imitation  ; 
and  any  one  able  to  cover  the  wall 
spaces  between  bookcases  in  a  library 
with  such  imitation  would  find  them 
as  richly  set  as  if  it  were  veritable 
tapestry. 

This  is  a  very  different  thing  from 
a  painted  tapestry,  perhaps  enlarged 
from  a  photograph  or  engraving  of 
a  painting  the  original  of  which  the 
tapestry-painter  had  never  even  seen 
— the  destiny  of  which  unfortunate 
copy,  changed  in  size,  colour,  and  all 
the  qualities  which  gave  value  to  the 
original,  is  probably  to  be  hung  as  a 
picture  in  the  centre  of  a  space  of 
wall-paper  totally  antagonistic  in 
colour. 


WALLS,  CEILINGS,  AND  FLOORS  103 

When  I  see  these  things  I  long  to 
curb  the  ambition  of  the  unfortunate 
tapestry-painter  until  a  course  of 
study  has  taught  him  or  her  the  proper 
use  of  a  really  useful  process ;  for 
whether  the  object  is  to  produce  a 
decoration  or  a  simulated  tapestry,  it 
is  not  attained  by  these  methods. 

The  ordinary  process  of  painting 
in  dyes  upon  a  wool  or  linen  fabric 
woven  in  tapestry  method,  and  fix¬ 
ing  the  colour  with  heat,  enables  the 
painter — if  a  true  tapestry  subject  is 
chosen  and  tapestry  effects  carefully 
studied — to  produce  really  effective 
and  good  things,  and  this  opens  a 
much  larger  field  to  the  woman  dec¬ 
orator  than  the  ordinary  unstudied 
shams  which  have  thrown  what  might 
become  in  time  a  large  and  useful  art- 
industry  into  neglect  and  disrepute. 

I  have  seen  the  walls  of  a  library 
hung  with  Siberian  linen,  stained  in 
landscape  design  in  the  old  blues  and 


104  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

greens  which  give  tapestry  its  decora¬ 
tive  value,  and  found  it  a  delightful 
wall-covering.  Indeed  we  may  lay 
it  down  as  a  principle  in  decoration 
that  while  we  may  use  and  adapt  any 
decorative  effect  we  must  not  attempt 
to  make  it  pass  for  the  thing  which 
suggested  the  effect. 

Coarse  and  carefully  woven  linens, 
used  as  I  have  indicated,  are  really  far 
better  than  old  tapestries  for  mod¬ 
ern  houses,  because  the  design  can  be 
adapted  to  the  specific  purpose  and 
the  texture  itself  can  be  easily  cleaned 
and  is  more  appropriate  to  the  close 
walls  and  less  airy  rooms  of  this  cen¬ 
tury. 

For  costly  wall-decoration,  leather 
is  another  of  the  substances  which 
have  had  a  past  of  pomp  and  mag¬ 
nificence,  and  carries  with  it,  in  addi¬ 
tion  to  beauty,  a  suggestion  of  the  art 
of  a  race.  Spanish  leather,  with  its 
stamping  and  gilding,  is  quite  as  cos  dy 


WALLS,  CEILINGS,  AND  FLOORS  105 

a  wall  covering  as  antique  or  modern 
tapestry,  and  far  more  indestructible. 
Perhaps  it  is  needlessly  durable  as  a 
mere  vehicle  for  decoration.  At  all 
events  Japanese  artists  and  artisans 
seem  to  be  of  this  opinion,  and  have 
transferred  the  same  kind  of  decora¬ 
tion  to  heavy  paper,  where  for  some 
occult  reason — although  strongly  sim¬ 
ulating  leather — it  seems  not  only  not 
objectionable,  but  even  meritorious. 
This  is  because  it  simply  transfers  an 
artistic  method  from  a  costly  sub¬ 
stance,  to  another  which  is  less  so, 
and  the  fact  may  even  have  some 
weight  that  paper  is  a  product  of 
human  manufacture,  instead  of  hu¬ 
man  appropriation  of  animal  life,  for 
surely  sentiment  has  its  influence  in 
decoration  as  in  other  arts. 

Wood  panelling  is  also  a  form  of 
interior  treatment  which  has  come  to 
us  by  inheritance  from  the  past  as 
well  as  by  right  of  natural  possession. 


106  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

It  has  a  richness  and  sober  dignity  of 
effect  which  commends  it  in  large  or 
small  interiors,  in  halls,  libraries,  and 
dining-rooms,  whether  they  are  pub¬ 
lic  or  private ;  devoted  to  grand 
functions,  or  to  the  constantly  re¬ 
curring  uses  of  domesticity.  Wood 
is  so  beautiful  a  substance  in  itself, 
and  lends  itself  to  so  many  processes 
of  ornamentation,  that  hardly  too 
much  can  be  said  of  its  appropriate¬ 
ness  for  interior  decoration.  From 
the  two  extremes  of  plain  pine  panel¬ 
lings  cut  into  squares  or  parallelo¬ 
grams  by  machinery,  and  covered 
with  paint  in  tints  to  match  door 
and  window  casings,  to  the  most 
elaborate  carvings  which  back  the 
Cathedral  stalls  or  seats  of  ecclesi¬ 
astical  dignity,  it  is  always  beautiful 
and  generally  appropriate  in  use  and 
effect,  and  that  can  hardly  be  said 
of  any  other  substance.  There  are 
wainscotted  rooms  in  old  houses  in 


PAINTED  CANVAS  FRIEZE 


BUCKRAM  FRIEZE  FOR  DINING-ROOM 


WALLS,  CEILINGS,  AND  FLOORS  107 

Newport,  where,  under  the  accumu¬ 
lated  paint  of  one  or  two  centuries, 
great  panels  of  old  Spanish  mahogany 
can  still  be  found,  not  much  the 
worse  for  their  long  eclipse.  Such 
rooms,  in  the  original  brilliancy  of 
colour  and  polish,  with  their  parallel 
shadings  of  mahogany-red  reflecting 
back  the  firelight  from  tiled  chimney- 
places  and  scattering  the  play  of 
dancing  flame,  must  have  had  a 
beauty  of  colour  hard  to  match  in 
this  day  of  sober  oak  and  painted 
wainscottings. 

One  of  the  lessons  gained  by  ex¬ 
perience  in  treatment  of  house  in¬ 
teriors,  is  that  plain,  flat  tints  give 
apparent  size  to  small  rooms,  and 
that  a  satisfying  effect  in  large  ones 
can  be  gained  by  variation  of  tint  or 
surface ;  also,  that  in  a  bedroom  or 
other  small  room  apparent  size  will 
be  gained  by  using  a  wall  covering 
which  is  light  rather  than  dark.  Some 


io8  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

difference  of  tone  there  must  be  in 
large  plain  surfaces  which  lie  within 
the  level  of  the  eye  ;  or  the  monot¬ 
ony  of  a  room  becomes  fatiguing. 
A  plain,  painted  wall  may,  it  is  true, 
be  broken  by  pictures,  or  cabinets,  or 
bits  of  china ;  anything  in  short 
which  will  throw  parts  of  it  into 
shadow,  and  illumine  other  parts 
with  gilded  reflections ;  but  even 
then  there  will  be  long,  plain  spaces 
above  the  picture  or  cabinet  line, 
where  blank  monotony  of  tone  will 
be  fatal  to  the  general  effect  of  the 
room. 

It  is  in  this  upper  space,  upon  a 
plain  painted  wall,  that  a  broad  line 
of  flat  decoration  should  occur,  but 
on  a  wall  hung  with  paper  or  cloth, 
it  is  by  no  means  necessary. 

Damasked  cloths,  where  the  design 
is  shown  by  the  direction  of  woven 
threads,  are  particularly  effective  and 
satisfactory  as  wall-coverings.  The 


WALLS,  CEILINGS,  AND  FLOORS  109 

soft  surface  is  luxurious  to  the  im¬ 
agination,  and  the  play  of  light  and 
shadow  upon  the  warp  and  woof  in¬ 
terests  the  eye,  although  there  is  no 
actual  change  of  colour. 

Too  much  stress  can  hardly  be  laid 
upon  the  variation  of  tone  in  wall- 
surfaces,  since  the  four  walls  stand  for 
the  atmosphere  of  a  room.  Tone 
means  quality  ol  colour.  It  may  be 
light  or  dark,  or  of  any  tint,  or  varia¬ 
tions  of  tint,  but  the  quality  of  it 
must  be  soft  and  charitable,  instead 
of  harsh  and  uncompromising. 

Almost  the  best  of  modern  inven¬ 
tions  for  inexpensive  wall-coverings 
are  found  in  what  are  called  the  in¬ 
grain  papers.  These  have  a  variable 
surface,  without  reflections,  and  make 
not  only  a  soft  and  impalpable  colour 
effect,  but,  on  account  of  their  want 
of  reflection,  are  good  backgrounds 
for  pictures. 

In  these  papers  the  colour  is  pro- 


no  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

duced  by  a  mixture  in  the  mass  of 
paper  pulp  of  atoms  of  varying  tint, 
which  are  combined  in  the  substance 
and  make  one  general  tint  resulting 
from  the  mixture  of  several.  In  can¬ 
vases  and  textiles,  which  are  a  more 
expensive  method  of  producing  al¬ 
most  the  same  mixed  effect,  the  mi¬ 
nute  points  of  brilliance  of  threads 
in  light  and  darkness  of  threads  in 
shadow,  combine  to  produce  softness 
of  tone,  impossible  to  pigment  be¬ 
cause  it  has  but  one  plain  surface, 
unrelieved  by  breaking  up  into  light 
and  shadow. 

Variation,  produced  by  minute 
differences,  which  affect  each  other 
and  which  the  eye  blends  into  a 
general  tone,  produce  quality.  It  is 
at  the  same  time  soft  and  brilliant, 
and  is  really  a  popular  adaptation  of 
the  philosophy  of  impressionist  paint¬ 
ers,  whose  small  dabs  of  pure  colour 
placed  in  close  juxtaposition  and 


WALLS,  CEILINGS,  AND  FLOORS  hi 

fused  into  one  tone  by  the  eye,  give 
the  purity  and  vibration  of  colour 
which  distinguishes  work  of  that 
school. 

Some  skilful  painters  can  stipple 
one  tone  upon  another  so  as  to  pro¬ 
duce  the  same  brilliant  softness  of 
effect,  and  when  this  can  be  done, 
oil-colour  upon  plaster  is  the  best  of 
all  treatment  for  bedrooms  since  it 
fulfils  all  the  sanitary  and  other  con¬ 
ditions  so  necessary  in  sleeping-rooms. 
The  same  effect  may  be  produced  if 
the  walls  are  of  rough  instead  of 
smooth  plaster,  so  that  the  small  in¬ 
equalities  of  surface  give  light  and 
shadow  as  in  textiles ;  upon  such  sur¬ 
faces  a  pleasant  tint  in  flat  colour  is 
always  good.  Painted  burlaps  and 
certain  Japanese  papers  prepared  with 
what  may  be  called  a  textile  or  can¬ 
vas  surface  give  the  same  effect,  and 
indeed  quality  of  tint  and  tone  is  far 
more  easily  obtained  in  wall-cover- 


I  12 


PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 


ings  or  applied  materials  than  in  paint, 
because  in  most  wall-coverings  there 
are  variations  of  tint  produced  in  the 
very  substance  of  the  material. 

This  matter  of  variation  without 
contrast  in  wall-surface,  is  one  of  the 
most  important  in  house  decoration, 
and  has  led  to  the  increased  use  of 
textiles  in  houses  where  artistic  effects 
have  been  carefully  studied  and  are 
considered  of  importance. 

Of  course  wall-paper  must  continue 
to  be  the  chief  means  of  wall-cover¬ 
ing,  on  account  of  its  cheapness,  and 
because  it  is  the  readiest  means  of 
sheathing  a  plaster  surface ;  and  a 
continuous  demand  for  papers  of 
good  and  nearly  uniform  colour,  and 
the  sort  of  inconspicuous  design 
which  fits  them  for  modest  interiors 
will  have  the  effect  of  increasing 
the  manufacture  of  desirable  and  ar¬ 
tistic  things. 

In  the  meantime  one  should  care- 


WALLS,  CEILINGS,  AND  FLOORS  iij 

fully  avoid  the  violently  coloured 
papers  which  are  made  only  to  sell ; 
materials  which  catch  the  eye  of  the 
inexperienced  and  tempt  them  into 
the  buying  of  things  which  are  pro¬ 
ductive  of  lasting  unrest.  It  is  in  the 
nature  of  positive  masses  and  strongly 
contrasting  colours  to  produce  this 
effect. 

If  one  is  unfortunate  enough  to 
occupy  a  room  of  which  the  walls  are 
covered  with  one  of  these  glaring  de¬ 
signs,  and  circumstances  prevent  a 
radical  change,  the  simplest  expedient 
is  to  cover  the  whole  surface  with  a 
kalsomine  or  chalk-wash,  of  some 
agreeable  tint.  This  will  dry  in  an 
hour  or  two  and  present  a  nearly 
uniform  surface,  in  which  the  printed 
design  of  the  paper,  if  it  appears  at 
all,  will  be  a  mere  suggestion.  Papers 
where  the  design  is  carried  in  colour 
only  a  few  shades  darker  than  the 
background,  are  also  safe,  and- — -if 


1 14  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

the  design  is  a  good  one — often  very 
desirable  for  halls  and  dining-rooms. 
In  skilfully  printed  papers  of  the  sort 
the  design  often  has  the  effect  of  a 
mere  shadow-play  of  form. 

Of  course  in  the  infinite  varieties 
of  use  and  the  numberless  variations 
of  personal  taste,  there  are,  and  should 
be,  innumerable  differences  in  appli¬ 
cation  of  both  colour  and  materials 
to  interiors.  There  are  differences  in 
the  use  of  rooms  which  may  make  a 
sense  of  perfect  seclusion  desirable,  as, 
for  instance,  in  libraries,  or  rooms 
used  exclusively  for  evening  gather¬ 
ings  of  the  family.  In  such  semi¬ 
private  rooms  the  treatment  should 
give  a  sense  of  close  family  life  rather 
than  space,  while  in  drawing-rooms 
it  should  be  exactly  the  reverse,  and 
this  effect  is  easily  secured  by  com¬ 
petent  use  of  colour. 


CHAPTER  IX 
LOCATION  OF  THE  HOUSE 

T3ESIDES  the  difference  in  treat- 
^  ment  demanded  by  different  use 
of  rooms — the  character  of  the  deco¬ 
ration  of  the  whole  house  will  be  in¬ 
fluenced  by  its  situation.  A  house 
in  the  country  or  a  house  in  town  ; 
a  house  by  the  sea-shore  or  a  house 
situated  in  woods  and  fields  require 
stronger  or  less  strong  colour,  and 
even  different  tints,  according  to  situ¬ 
ation.  The  decoration  itself  may  be 
much  less  conventional  in  one  place 
than  in  another,  and  in  country 
houses  much  and  lasting  charm  is 
derived  from  design  and  colour  in 
perfect  harmony  with  nature’s  sur¬ 
roundings.  Whatever  decorative  de¬ 
sign  is  used  in  wall-coverings  or  in 
curtains  or  hangings  will  be  far  more 

”5 


XI 6  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

effective  if  it  bears  some  relation  to 
the  surroundings  and  position  of  the 
house. 

If  the  nouse  is  by  the  sea  the  walls 
should  repeat  with  many  variations 
the  tones  of  sea  and  sand  and  sky; 
the  gray-greens  of  sand-grasses ;  the 
blues  which  change  from  blue  to  green 
with  every  cloud-shadow ;  the  pearl 
tints  which  become  rose  in  the  morn¬ 
ing  or  evening  light,  and  the  browns 
and  olives  of  sea  mosses  and  lichens. 
This  treatment  of  colour  will  make 
the  interior  of  the  house  a  part  of 
the  great  out-of-doors  and  create  a 
harmony  between  the  artificial  shel¬ 
ter  and  nature. 

There  is  philosophy  in  following, 
as  far  as  the  limitations  of  simple 
colour  will  allow,  the  changeableness 
and  fluidity  of  natural  efiects  along 
the  shore,  and  allowing  the  mood  of 
the  brief  summer  life  to  fall  into 
entire  harmony  with  the  dominant 


LOCATION  OF  THE  HOUSE  11 7 

expression  of  the  sea.  Blues  and 
greens  and  pinks  and  browns  should 
all  be  kept  on  a  level  with  out-of- 
door  colour,  that  is,  they  should  not 
be  too  deep  and  strong  for  harmony 
with  the  sea  and  sky,  and  if,  when 
harmonious  colour  is  once  secured, 
most  of  the  materials  used  in  the 
furnishing  of  the  house  are  chosen 
because  their  design  is  based  upon,  or 
suggested  by,  sea-forms,  an  impression 
is  produced  of  having  entered  into 
complete  and  perfect  harmony  with 
the  elements  and  aspects  of  nature. 
The  artificialities  of  life  fall  more  and 
more  into  the  background,  and  one 
is  refreshed  with  a  sense  of  having 
established  entirely  harmonious  and 
satisfactory  relations  with  the  sur¬ 
roundings  of  nature.  I  remember  a 
doorway  of  a  cottage  by  the  sea, 
where  the  moulding  which  made  a 
part  of  the  frame  was  an  orderly  line 
of  carved  cockle-shells,  used  as  a  bor- 


1 1 8  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

der,  and  this  little  touch  of  recog¬ 
nition  of  its  sea-neighbours  was  not 
only  decorative  in  itself,  but  gave 
even  the  chance  visitor  a  sort  of  in¬ 
terpretation  of  the  spirit  of  the  in¬ 
terior  life. 

Suppose,  on  the  other  hand,  that 
the  summer  house  is  placed  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  fields  and  trees  and 
mountains ;  it  will  be  found  that 
strong  and  positive  treatment  of  the 
interior  is  more  in  harmony  with  the 
outside  landscape.  Even  heavier  fur¬ 
niture  looks  fitting  where  the  house  is 
surrounded  with  massive  tree-growths; 
and  deeper  and  purer  colours  can  be 
used  in  hangings  and  draperies.  This 
is  due  to  the  more  positive  colouring 
of  a  landscape  than  of  a  sea-view. 
The  masses  of  strong  and  slightly 
varying  green  in  foliage,  the  red, 
brown,  or  vivid  greens  of  fields  and 
crops,  the  dark  lines  of  tree-trunks 
and  branches,  as  well  as  the  unchang- 


LOCATION  OF  THE  HOUSE  119 

ing  forms  of  rock  and  hillside*  call 
for  a  corresponding  strength  of  in¬ 
terior  effect. 

It  is  a  curious  fact,  also,  that  where 
a  house  is  surrounded  by  myriads  of 
small  natural  forms  of  leaves  and 
flowers  and  grasses,  plain  spaces  of 
colour  in  interiors,  or  spaces  where 
form  is  greatly  subordinated  to  col¬ 
our,  are  more  grateful  to  the  eye 
than  prominently  decorated  surface. 
A  repetition  of  small  natural  forms 
like  the  shells  and  sea-mosses,  which 
are  for  the  most  part  hidden  under 
lengths  of  liquid  blue,  is  pleasing  and 
suggestive  by  the  sea ;  but  in  the 
country,  where  form  is  prominent 
and  positive  and  prints  itself  con¬ 
stantly  upon  both  mental  and  bodily 
vision,  unbroken  colour  surfaces  are 
found  to  be  far  more  agreeable. 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  principles 
of  appropriate  furnishing  and  adorn¬ 
ment  in  house  interiors  depend  upon 


izo  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

circumstances  and  natural  surround¬ 
ings  as  well  as  upon  the  character 
and  pursuits  of  the  family  who  are  to 
be  lodged,  and  that  the  final  charm 
of  the  home  is  attained  by  a  perfect 
adaptation  of  principles  to  existing 
conditions  both  of  nature  and  hu¬ 
manity. 

In  cottages  of  the  character  we  are 
considering,  furniture  should  be  sim¬ 
pler  and  lighter  than  in  houses  in¬ 
tended  for  constant  family  living. 
Chairs  and  sofas  should  be  without 
elaborate  upholstery  and  hangings,  and 
cushions  can  be  appropriately  made  of 
some  well-coloured  cotton  or  linen 
material  which  wind,  and  sun,  and 
dampness  cannot  spoil,  and  of  which 
the  freshness  can  always  be  restored  by 
laundering.  These  are  general  rules, 
appropriate  to  all  summer  cottages, 
and  to  these  it  may  be  added,  that  a 
house  which  is  to  be  closed  for  six  or 
eight  months  in  the  year  should  really, 


LOCATION  OF  THE  HOUSE 


1  2  I 


to  be  consistent,  be  inexpensively  fur¬ 
nished.  These  general  rules  are  in¬ 
tended  only  to  emphasise  the  fact 
that  in  houses  which  are  to  become 
in  the  truest  sense  homes — that  is, 
places  of  habitation  which  represent 
the  inhabitants,  directions  or  rules  for 
beautiful  colour  and  arrangement  of 
interiors,  must  always  follow  the  guid¬ 
ing  incidents  of  class  and  locality. 


CHAPTER  X 
CEILINGS 

As.  ceilings  are  in  reality  a  part  of 
the  wall,  they  must  always  be 
considered  in  connection  with  room 
interiors,  but  their  influence  upon  the 
beauty  of  the  average  house  is  so 
small,  that  their  treatment  is  a  com¬ 
paratively  easy  problem. 

In  simple  houses  with  plaster  ceil¬ 
ings  the  tints  to  be  used  are  easily 
decided.  The  rule  of  gradation  of 
colour  from  floor  to  ceiling  prescribes 
for  the  latter  the  lightest  tone  of  the 
gradation,  and  as  the  ceiling  stands 
for  light,  and  should  actually  reflect 
light  into  the  room,  the  philosophy 
of  this  arrangement  of  colours  is  ob¬ 
vious.  It  is  not,  however,  an  invari¬ 
able  rule  that  the  ceiling  should  carry 
the  same  tint  as  the  wall,  even  in  a 


122 


CEILINGS 


123 


much  lighter  tone,  although  greater 
harmony  and  restfulness  of  effect  is 
produced  in  this  way.  A  ceiling  of 
cream  white  will  harmonise  well  with 
almost  any  tint  upon  the  walls,  and 
at  the  same  time  give  an  effect  of  air 
and  light  in  the  room.  It  is  also  a 
good  ground  for  ornament  in  elabo¬ 
rately  decorated  ones. 

If  the  walls  are  covered  with  a 
light  wall-paper  which  carries  a  floral 
design,  it  is  a  safe  rule  to  make  the 
ceiling  of  the  same  colour  but  a 
lighter  shade  of  the  background  of 
the  paper,  but  it  is  not  by  any 
means  good  art  to  carry  a  flower  de¬ 
sign  over  the  ceiling.  One  sometimes 
sees  instances  of  this  in  the  bedrooms 
of  fairly  good  houses,  and  the  effect 
is  naturally  that  of  bringing  the  ceil¬ 
ing  apparently  almost  to  one’s  head, 
or  at  all  events,  of  producing  a  very 
unrestful  effect. 

A  wood  ceiling  in  natural  colour 


I24  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

is  always  a  good  feature  in  a  room  of 
defined  or  serious  purpose,  like  a  hall, 
dining-room,  or  library,  because  in 
such  rooms  the  colour  of  the  side 
walls  is  apt  to  be  strong  enough  to 
balance  it.  Indeed  a  wooden  ceiling 
has  always  the  merit  of  being  secure 
in  its  place,  and  even  where  the  walls 
are  light  can  be  painted  so  as  to  be 
in  harmony  with  them.  Plaster  as  a 
ceiling  for  bedrooms  is  open  to  the 
objection  of  a  possibility  of  its  de¬ 
taching  itself  from  the  lath,  especially 
in  old  houses,  and  in  these  it  is  well 
to  have  them  strengthened  with  flat 
mouldings  of  wood  put  on  in  regular 
squares,  or  even  in  some  geometrical 
design,  and  painted  with  the  ceiling.. 
This  gives  security  as  well  as  a  cert^ 
tain  elaborateness  of  effect  not  with-; 
out  its  value.  4- 

For  the  ordinary,  or  comparatively 
inexpensive  home,  we  need  not  con¬ 
sider  the  ceiling  an  object  for  serious 


CEILINGS 


iz5 

study,  because  it  is  so  constantly  out 
of  the  line  of  sight,  and  because  its 
natural  colourless  condition  is  no  bar 
to  the  general  colour-effect. 

In  large  rooms  this  condition  is 
changed,  for  in  a  long  perspective 
the  ceiling  comes  into  sight  and  con¬ 
sciousness.  There  would  be  a  sense 
of  barrenness  and  poverty  in  a  long 
stretch  of  plain  surface  or  unbroken 
colour  over  a  vista  of  decorated  wall, 
and  accordingly  the  ceilings  of  large 
and  important  rooms  are  generally 
broken  by  plaster  mouldings  or  archi¬ 
tectural  ornament. 

In  rooms  of  this  kind,  whether  in 
public  or  private  buildings,  decorative 
painting  has  its  proper  and  appro¬ 
priate  place.  A  painted  ceiling,  no 
matter  how  beautiful,  is  quite  super¬ 
fluous  and  indeed  absolutely  lost  in  a 
room  where  size  prevents  its  being 
brought  into  the  field  of  the  eye  by 
the  lowering  of  long  perspective  lines, 


126  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

but  when  the  size  of  the  room  gives 
unusual  length  of  ceiling,  no  effect  of 
decoration  is  so  valuable  and  pre¬ 
cious.  Colour  and  gilding  upon  a 
ceiling,  when  well  sustained  by  fine 
composition  or  treatment,  is  undoubt¬ 
edly  the  highest  and  best  achievement 
of  the  decorative  painter’s  art. 

Such  a  ceiling  in  a  large  and  stately 
drawing-room,  where  the  walls  are 
hung  with  silk  which  gives  broken 
indications  of  graceful  design  in  play 
of  light  upon  the  texture,  is  one  of 
the  most  successful  of  both  modern 
as  well  as  antique  methods  of  deco¬ 
ration.  It  has  come  down  in  direct 
succession  of  practice  to  the  school  of 
French  decoration  of  to-day,  and  has 
been  adopted  into  American  fashion 
in  its  full  and  complete  practice  with¬ 
out  sufficient  adaptation  to  American 
circumstances.  If  it  were  modified 
by  these,  it  is  capable  of  absorbing 
other  and  better  qualities  than  those 


CEILINGS 


127 


of  mere  fashion  and  brilliance,  as  we 
see  in  occasional  instances  in  some 
beautiful  American  houses,  where  the 
ceilings  have  been  painted,  and  the 
textiles  woven  with  an  almost  im¬ 
aginative  appropriateness  of  subject. 
Such  ceilings  as  this  belong,  of  course, 
to  the  efforts  of  the  mural  or  decora¬ 
tive  painter,  who,  in  conjunction  with 
the  decorator,  or  architect,  has  studied 
the  subject  as  connected  with  its  sur¬ 
roundings. 


CHAPTER  XI 

FLOORS  AND  FLOOR-COVERINGS 

A  LTHOUGH  in  ordinary  sequence 
the  colouring  of  floors  comes 
after  that  of  walls,  the  fact  that — in 
important  houses — costly  and  elabo¬ 
rate  floors  of  mosaic  or  of  inlaid 
wood  form  part  of  the  architect’s  plan, 
makes  it  necessary  to  consider  the 
effect  of  inherent  or  natural  colours 
of  such  floors,  in  connection  with 
applied  colour-schemes  in  rooms. 

Mosaic  floors,  being  as  a  rule  con¬ 
fined  to  halls  in  private  houses,  need 
hardly  be  considered  in  this  relation, 
and  costly  wood  floors  are  almost 
necessarily  confined  to  the  yellows 
of  the  natural  woods.  These  yellows 
range  from  pale  buff  to  olive,  and  are 
not  as  a  rule  inharmonious  with  any 
other  tint,  although  they  often  lack 

128 


FLOORS  AND  FLOOR-COVERINGS  129 

sufficient  strength  or  intensity  to  hold 
their  own  with  stronger  tints  of  walls 
and  furniture. 

As  it  is  one  of  the  principles  of 
colour  in  a  house  that  the  floor  is  the 
foundation  of  the  room,  this  weak¬ 
ness  of  colour  in  hard-wood  floors 
must  be  acknowledged  as  a  disadvan¬ 
tage.  The  floors  should  certainly  be 
able  to  support  the  room  in  colour 
as  well  as  in  construction.  It  must 
be  the  strongest  tint  in  the  room,  and 
yet  it  must  have  the  unobtrusiveness 
of  strength.  This  makes  floor  treat¬ 
ment  a  more  difficult  problem,  or 
one  requiring  more  thought  than  is 
generally  supposed,  and  explains  why 
light  rooms  are  more  successful  with 
hard-wood  floors  than  medium  or 
very  dark  ones. 

There  are  many  reasons,  sanitary 
as  well  as  economic,  why  hard-wood 
floors  should  not  be  covered  in  or¬ 
dinary  dwelling-houses ;  and  when 


i3o  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

the  pores  of  the  wood  are  properly 
filled,  and  the  surface  kept  well  pol¬ 
ished,  it  is  not  only  good  as  a  fact, 
but  as  an  effect,  as  it  reflects  sur¬ 
rounding  tints,  and  does  much  to 
make  up  for  lack  of  sympathetic  or 
related  colour.  Yet  it  will  be  found 
that  in  almost  every  case  of  success¬ 
ful  colour-treatment  in  a  room,  some¬ 
thing  must  be  added  in  the  way  of 
floor-covering  to  give  it  the  sense  of 
completeness  and  satisfaction  which 
is  the  result  of  a  successful  scheme 
of  decoration. 

The  simplest  way  of  doing  this  is 
to  cover  enough  of  the  space  with 
rugs  to  attract  the  eye,  and  restore 
the  balance  lost  by  want  of  strength 
of  colour  in  the  wood.  Sometimes 
one  or  two  small  rugs  will  do  this, 
and  these  may  be  of  almost  any  tint 
which  includes  the  general  one  of  the 
room,  even  if  the  general  tint  is  not 
prominent  in  the  rug.  If  the  use  or 


SQUARE  HALL  IN  CITY  HOUSE 


FLOORS  AND  FLOOR-GOVERINGS  1 31 

luxury  of  the  room  requires  more 
covered  space,  it  is  better  to  use  one 
rug  of  a  larger  size  than  several  small 
and  perhaps  conflicting  ones.  Of 
course  in  this  the  general  tone  of  the 
rug  must  be  chosen  for  its  affinity 
to  the  tone  of  the  room,  but  that 
affinity  secured,  any  variations  of 
colour  occurring  in  the  design  are 
apt  to  add  to  the  general  effect. 

A  certain  amount  of  contrast  to 
prevailing  colour  is  an  advantage,  and 
the  general  value  of  rugs  in  a  scheme 
of  decoration  is  that  they  furnish  this 
contrast  in  small  masses  or  divisions, 
so  well  worked  in  with  other  tints 
and  tones  that  it  makes  its  effect 
without  opposition  to  the  general 

Thus,  in  a  room  where  the  walls 
are  of  a  pale  shade  of  copper,  the 
rugs  should  bring  in  a  variety  of  reds 
which  would  be  natural  parts  of  the 
same  scale,  like  lower  notes  in  the 


1 32  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

octave ;  and  yet  should  add  patches 
of  relative  blues  and  harmonising 
greens ;  possibly  also,  deep  gold,  and 
black  and  white ; — the  latter  in  mi¬ 
nute  forms  and  lines  which  only  ac¬ 
cent  or  enrich  the  general  effect. 

It  is  really  an  interesting  problem, 
why  the  strong  colours  generally  used 
in  Oriental  rugs  should  harmonise  so 
much  better  with  weaker  tints  in 
walls  and  furniture  than  even  the 
most  judiciously  selected  carpets  can 
possibly  do.  It  is  true  there  are  bad 
Oriental  rugs,  very  bad  ones,  just  as 
there  may  be  a  villain  in  any  con¬ 
gregation  of  the  righteous,  but  cer¬ 
tainly  the  long  centuries  of  Eastern 
manufacture,  reaching  back  to  the 
infancy  of  the  world,  have  given 
Eastern  nations  secrets  not  to  be 
easily  mastered  by  the  people  of  later 
days. 

But  if  we  cannot  tell  with  cer¬ 
tainty  why  good  rugs  fit  all  places 


FLOORS  AND  FLOOR-COVERINGS  133 

and  circumstances,  while  any  other 
thing  of  mortal  manufacture  must 
have  its  place  carefully  prepared  for 
it,  we  may  perhaps  assume  to  know 
why  the  most  beautiful  of  modern 
carpets  are  not  as  easily  managed  and 
as  successful. 

In  the  first  place  having  explained 
that  some  contrast,  some  fillip  of 
opposing  colour,  something  which 
the  artist  calls  snap ,  is  absolutely  re¬ 
quired  in  every  successful  colour 
scheme,  we  shall  see  that  if  we  are 
to  get  this  by  simple  means  of  a  car¬ 
pet,  we  must  choose  one  which 
carries  more  than  one  colour  in  its 
composition,  and  colour  introduced 
as  design  must  come  under  the  laws 
of  mechanical  manufacture ;  that  is, 
it  must  come  in  as  repeating  design, 
and  here  comes  in  the  real  difficulty. 
The  same  forms  and  the  same  col¬ 
ours  must  come  in  in  the  same  way 
in  every  yard,  or  every  half  or  three- 


i34  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

quarter  yard  of  the  carpet.  It  fol¬ 
lows,  then,  that  it  must  be  evenly 
sprinkled  or  it  must  regularly  mean¬ 
der  over  every  yard  or  half  yard  of 
the  surface ;  and  this  regularity  re¬ 
solves  itself  into  spots,  and  spots  are 
unendurable  in  a  scheme  of  colour. 
So  broad  a  space  as  the  floor  of  a 
room  cannot  be  covered  by  sections 
of  constantly  repeated  design  without 
producing  a  spotty  effect,  although  it 
can  be  somewhat  modified  by  the 
efforts  of  the  good  designer.  Never¬ 
theless,  in  spite  of  his  best  knowledge 
and  intention,  the  difficulty  remains. 
There  is  no  one  patch  of  colour 
larger  than  another,  or  more  irregu¬ 
lar  in  form.  There  is  nothing  which 
has  not  its  exact  counterpart  at  an 
exact  distance— north,  south,  east 
and  west,  or  northeast,  southeast, 
northwest  and  southwest — -and  this 
is  why  a  carpet  with  good  design  and 
excellent  colour  becomes  unbearable 


FLOORS  AND  FLOOR-COVERINGS  135 

in  a  room  of  large  size.  In  a  small 
room  where  there  are  not  so  many 
repeats,  the  effect  is  not  as  bad,  but 
in  a  large  room  the  monotonous 
repetition  is  almost  without  remedy. 

Of  course  there  are  certain  laws  of 
optics  and  ingenuities  of  composition 
which  may  palliate  this  effect,  but 
the  fact  remains  that  the  floor  should 
be  covered  in  a  way  which  will  leave 
the  mind  tranquil  and  the  eye  satis¬ 
fied,  and  this  is  hard  to  accomplish 
with  what  is  commonly  known  as  a 
figured  carpet. 

If  carpet  is  to  be  used,  it  seems, 
then,  that  the  simplest  way  is  to 
select  a  good  monochrome  in  the 
prevailing  tint  of  the  room,  but  sev¬ 
eral  shades  darker.  Not  an  abso¬ 
lutely  plain  surface,  but  one  broken 
with  some  unobtrusive  design  or  pat¬ 
tern  in  still  darker  darks  and  lighter 
lights  than  the  general  tone.  In  this 
case  we  shall  have  the  room  har- 


136  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

monious,  it  is  true,  but  lacking  the 
element  which  provokes  admiration 
— the  enlivening  effect  of  contrast. 
This  may  be  secured  by  making  the 
centre  or  main  part  of  the  carpet 
comparatively  small,  and  using  a  very 
wide  and  important  border  of  con¬ 
trasting  colour — a  border  so  wide  as 
to  make  itself  an  important  part  of 
the  carpet.  In  large  rooms  this  plan 
does  not  entirely  obviate  the  diffi¬ 
culty,  as  it  leaves  the  central  space 
still  too  large  and  impressive  to  re¬ 
main  unbroken ;  but  the  remedy 
may  be  found  in  the  use  of  hearth¬ 
rugs  or  skin-rugs,  so  placed  as  to 
seem  necessities  of  use. 

As  I  have  said  before,  contrast  on 
a  broad  scale  can  be  secured  by 
choosing  carpets  of  an  entirely  differ¬ 
ent  tone  from  the  wall,  and  this  is 
sometimes  expedient.  For  instance, 
as  contrast  to  a  copper-coloured  wall, 
a  softly  toned  green  carpet  is  nearly 


FLOORS  AND  FLOOR-COVERINGS  13? 

always  successful.  This  one  colour, 
green,  is  always  safe  and  satisfactory 
in  a  floor-covering,  provided  the 
walls  are  not  too  strong  in  tone,  and 
provided  that  the  green  in  the  carpet 
is  not  too  green.  Certain  brownish 
greens  possess  the  quality  of  being  in 
harmony  with  every  other  colour. 
They  are  the  most  peaceable  shades 
in  the  colour-world — the  only  ones 
without  positive  antipathies.  Green 
in  all  the  paler  tones  can  claim  the 
title  of  peace-maker  among  colours, 
since  all  the  other  tints  will  fight 
with  something  else,  but  never  with 
green  of  a  corresponding  or  even  of 
a  much  greater  strength.  Of  course 
this  valuable  quality,  combined  with 
a  natural  restfulness  of  effect,  makes 
it  the  safest  of  ordinary  floor-cover¬ 
ings. 

In  bedrooms  with  polished  floors 
and  light  walls  good  colour-effects 
can  be  secured  without  carpets,  but 


138  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

if  the  floors  are  of  pine  and  need 
covering,  no  better  general  effect  can 
be  secured  than  that  of  plain  or 
mixed  ingrain  filling,  using  with  it 
Oriental  hearth  and  bedside  rugs. 

The  entire  second  floor  of  a  house 
can  in  that  case  be  covered  with 
carpet  in  the  accommodating  tint  of 
green  mentioned,  leaving  the  various 
colour-connections  to  be  made  with 
differently  tinted  rugs.  Good  pine 
floors  well  fitted  and  finished  can 
be  stained  to  harmonise  with  almost 
any  tint  used  in  furniture  or  upon 
the  wall. 

I  remember  a  sea-side  chamber  in 
a  house  where  the  mistress  had  great 
natural  decorative  ability,  and  so  much 
cultivation  as  to  prevent  its  running 
away  with  her,  where  the  floor  was 
stained  a  transparent  olive,  like  depths 
of  sea-water,  and  here  and  there  a 
floating  sea-weed,  or  a  form  of  sea- 
life  faintly  outlined  within  the  col- 


FLOORS  AND  FLOOR-COVERINGS  139 

our.  In  this  room,  which  seemed 
wide  open  to  the  sea.  and  air,  even 
when  the  windows  were  closed,  the 
walls  were  oF  a  Faint  greenish  blue, 
like  what  is  called  dead  turquoise, 
and  the  relation  between  floor  and 
walls  was  so  perFect  that  it  remained 
with  me  to  this  day  as  a  crowning  in¬ 
stance  oF  satisFaction  in  colour. 

It  is  perhaps  more  difficult  to  con¬ 
vey  an  idea  oF  happy  choice  or  selec¬ 
tion  oF  floor-colour  than  oF  walls, 
because  it  is  relative  to  walls.  It 
must  relate  to  what  has  already  been 
done.  But  in  recapitulation  it  is 
saFe  to  say,  first,  that  in  choosing 
colour  For  a  room,  soFt  and  medium 
tints  are  better  than  positively  dark 
or  bright  ones,  and  that  walls  should 
be  unobtrusive  in  design  as  well  as 
colour  ;  secondly,  that  floors,  iF  oF  the 
same  tint  as  walls,  should  be  much 
darker  ;  and  that  they  should  be  made 
apparent  by  means  oF  this  strength  oF 


1 4o  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

colour,  or  by  the  addition  of  rugs  or 
borders,  although  the  relation  be¬ 
tween  walls  and  floor  must  be  care¬ 
fully  preserved  and  perfectly  unmis¬ 
takable,  lor  it  is  the  perfection  of  this 
relation  of  one  colour  to  another 
which  makes  home  decoration  an  art. 

There  is  still  a  word  to  be  said  as 
to  floor-coverings,  which  relates  to 
healthful  housekeeping  instead  of 
art,  and  that  is,  that  in  all  cases 
where  carpets  or  mattings  are  used, 
they  should  be  in  rug  form,  not  fitted 
in  to  irregular  floor-spaces ;  so  as  to 
be  frequently  and  easily  lifted  and 
cleaned.  The  great,  and  indeed  the 
only,  objection  to  the  use  of  mattings 
in  country  or  summer  houses,  is  the 
difficulty  of  frequent  lifting,  and  re¬ 
moval  of  accumulated  dust,  which 
has  sifted  through  to  the  floor — but 
if  fine  hemp-warp  mattings  are  used, 
and  sewn  into  squares  which  cover 
the  floor  sufficiently,  it  is  an  ideal 


FLOORS  AND  FLOOR-COVERINGS  141 

summer  floor-covering,  as  it  can  be 
rolled  and  removed  even  more  easily 
than  a  carpet,  and  there  is  a  dust- 
shedding  quality  in  it  which  com¬ 
mends  itself  to  the  housekeeper. 


CHAPTER  XII 
DRAPERIES 

T^RAPERIES  are  not  always  con¬ 
sidered  as  a  part  of  furnishings, 
yet  in  truth- — as  far  as  decorative  ne¬ 
cessities  are  concerned— they  should 
come  immediately  after  wall  and  floor 
coverings.  The  householder  who  is 
in  haste  to  complete  the  arrange¬ 
ment  of  the  home  naturally  thinks  first 
of  chairs,  sofas,  and  tables,  because 
they  come  into  immediate  personal 
use,  but  if  draperies  are  recognised 
as  a  necessary  part  of  the  beauty  of 
the  house  it  is  worth  while  to  study 
their  appropriate  character  from  the 
first.  They  have  in  truth  much  more 
to  do  with  the  effect  of  the  room 
than  chairs  or  sofas,  since  these  are 
speedily  sat  upon  and  pass  out  of 

142 


DRAPERIES 


H3 


notice,  while  draperies  or  portieres 
are  in  the  nature  of  pictures — hang¬ 
ing  in  everybody’s  sight.  As  far  as 
the  element  of  beauty  is  concerned,  a 
room  having  good  colour,  attractive 
and  interesting  pictures,  and  beautiful 
draperies,  is  already  furnished.  What¬ 
ever  else  goes  to  the  making  of  it 
may  be  also  beautiful,  but  it  must  be 
convenient  and  useful,  while  in  the 
selection  of  draperies,  beauty,  both 
relative  and  positive,  is  quite  untram¬ 
melled. 

As  in  all  other  furnishings,  from 
the  aesthetic  point  of  view  colour  is 
the  first  thing  to  be  considered.  As 
a  rule  it  should  follow  that  of  the 
walls,  a  continuous  effect  of  colour 
with  variation  of  form  and  surface  be¬ 
ing  a  valuable  and  beautiful  thing  to 
secure.  To  give  the  full  value  of 
variation — -where  the  walls  are  plain 
one  should  choose  a  figured  stuff  for 
curtains ;  where  the  wall  is  papered, 


i44  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

or  covered  with  figures,  a  plain  ma¬ 
terial  should  be  used. 

There  is  one  exception  to  this 
rule  and  this  is  in  the  case  of  walls 
hung  with  damask.  Here  it  is  best 
to  use  the  same  material  for  curtains, 
as  the  effect  is  obtained  by  the  differ¬ 
ence  between  the  damask  hung  in 
folds,  with  the  design  indistinguish¬ 
able,  or  stretched  flat  upon  a  wall- 
surface,  where  it  is  plainly  to  be  seen 
and  felt.  Even  where  damask  is  used 
upon  the  walls,  if  exactly  the  same 
shade  of  colour  can  be  found  in  satin 
or  velvet,  the  plain  material  in  drap¬ 
ery  will  enhance  the  value  of  design 
on  the  walls. 

This  choice  or  selection  of  colour 
applies  to  curtains  and  portieres  as 
simple  adjuncts  of  furnishing,  and  not 
to  such  pieces  of  drapery  as  are  in 
themselves  works  of  art.  When  a 
textile  becomes  a  work  of  art  it  is  in 
a  measure  a  law  unto  itself,  and  has 


DRAPERIES 


H5 

as  much  right  to  select  its  own  col¬ 
our  as  if  it  were  a  picture  instead  of 
a  portiere,  in  fact  if  it  is  sufficiently 
important,  the  room  must  follow  in¬ 
stead  of  leading.  This  may  happen 
in  the  case  of  some  priceless  old 
embroidery,  some  relic  of  that  peace¬ 
ful  past,  when  hours  and  days  flowed 
contentedly  into  a  scheme  of  art  and 
beauty,  without  a  thought  of  com¬ 
petitive  manufacture.  It  might  be 
difficult  to  subdue  the  spirit  of  a 
modern  drawing-room  into  harmony 
with  such  a  work  of  art,  but  if  it 
were  done,  it  would  be  a  very  shrine 
of  restfulness  to  the  spirit. 

Fortunately  many  ancient  marvels 
of  needlework  were  done  upon  white 
satin,  and  this  makes  them  easily 
adaptable  to  any  light  scheme  of  col¬ 
our,  where  they  may  appear  indeed 
as  guests  of  honour — invited  from 
the  past  to  be  courted  by  the  pres¬ 
ent.  It  is  not  often  that  such  pieces 


146  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

are  offered  as  parts  of  a  scheme  ot 
modern  decoration,  and  the  fingers 
of  to-day  are  too  busy  or  too  idle  for 
their  creation,  yet  it  sometimes  hap¬ 
pens  that  a  valuable  piece  of  drapery 
of  exceptional  colour  belongs  by  in¬ 
heritance  or  purchase  to  the  fortunate 
householder,  and  in  this  case  it  should 
be  used  as  a  picture  would  be,  for  an 
independent  bit  of  decoration. 

To  return  to  simple  things,  the  rule 
of  contrast  as  applied  to  papered  walls, 
covered  with  design,  ordains  that  the 
curtains  should  undoubtedly  be  plain 
and  of  the  most  pronounced  tint 
used  in  the  paper.  If  the  walls  of  a 
room  are  simply  tinted  or  painted, 
figured  stuffs  of  the  same  general 
tone,  or  printed  silks,  velvets,  or  cot¬ 
tons  in  which  the  predominant  tint 
corresponds  with  that  of  the  wall 
should  be  used.  These  relieve  the 
simplicity  of  the  walls,  and  give  the 
desirable  variation. 


DRAPERIES 


*47 


Transparent  silk  curtains  are  of 
great  value  in  colouring  the  light 
which  enters  the  room,  and  these 
should  be  used  in  direct  reference  to 
the  light.  If  the  room  is  dark  or 
cold  in  its  exposure,  to  hang  the 
windows  with  sun-coloured  silk  or 
muslin  will  cheat  the  eye  and  im¬ 
agination  into  the  idea  that  it  is  a 
sunny  room.  If,  on  the  contrary, 
there  is  actual  sunshine  in  the  room, 
a  pervading  tint  of  rose-colour  or 
delicate  green  may  be  given  by  inner 
curtains  of  either  of  those  colours. 
These  are  effects,  however,  for  which 
rules  can  hardly  be  given,  since  the 
possible  variations  must  be  carefully 
studied,  unless,  indeed,  they  are  the 
colour-strokes  of  some  one  who  has 
that  genius  for  combination  or  con¬ 
trast  of  tints  which  we  call  “  colour 
sense.” 

After  colour  in  draperies  come 
texture  and  quality,  and  these  need 


148  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

hardly  be  discussed  in  the  case  of 
silken  fabrics,  because  silk  fibre  has 
inherent  qualities  of  tenacity  of  tint 
and  flexibility  of  substance.  Pure 
silk,  that  is  silk  unstiffened  with 
gums,  no  matter  how  thickly  and 
heavily  it  is  woven,  is  soft  and  yield¬ 
ing  and  will  fall  into  folds  without 
sharp  angles.  This  quality  of  soft¬ 
ness  is  in  its  very  substance.  Even 
a  single  unwoven  thread  of  silk  will 
drop  gracefully  into  loops,  where  a 
cotton  or  linen  or  even  a  woollen 
thread  will  show  stiffness. 

Woollen  fibre  seems  to  acquire 
softness  as  it  is  gathered  into  yarns 
and  woven,  and  will  hang  in  folds 
with  almost  the  same  grace  as  silk;  but 
unfortunately  they  are  favourite  past¬ 
ure  grounds  as  well  as  burying-places 
for  moths,  and  although  these  co¬ 
inhabitants  of  our  houses  come  to  a 
speedy  resurrection,  they  devour  their 
very  graves,  and  leave  our  woollen 


DRAPERIES 


H9 


draperies  irremediably  damaged.  It 
is  a  pity  that  woollen  fabrics  should 
in  this  way  be  made  undesirable  for 
household  use,  for  they  possess  in  a 
great  degree  the  two  most  valuable 
qualities  of  silk  :  colour-tenacity  and 
flexibility.  If  one  adopts  woollen  cur¬ 
tains  and  portieres,  constant  “  vigil¬ 
ance  is  the  price  of  safety,”  and  con¬ 
sidering  that  vigilance  is  required 
everywhere  and  at  all  times  in  the 
household,  it  is  best  to  reduce  the 
quantity  whenever  it  is  possible. 

This  throws  us  back  upon  cottons 
and  linens  for  inexpensive  hangings, 
and  in  all  the  thousand  forms  in 
which  these  two  fibres  are  manufact¬ 
ured  it  would  seem  easy  to  choose 
those  which  are  beautiful,  durable, 
and  appropriate.  But  here  we  are 
met  at  the  very  threshold  of  choice 
with  the  two  undesirable  qualities  of 
fugitive  colour,  and  stiffness  of  text¬ 
ure.  Something  in  the  nature  of 


ISO  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

cotton  makes  it  inhospitable  to  dyes, 
if  it  receives  them  it  is  with  a  pro¬ 
test,  and  an  evident  intention  of 
casting  them  out  at  the  earliest  op¬ 
portunity- — it  makes,  it  is  true,  one 
or  two  exceptions.  It  welcomes  in¬ 
digo  dye  and  will  never  quite  relin¬ 
quish  its  companionship ;  once  re¬ 
ceived,  it  will  carry  its  colours 
through  all  its  serviceable  life,  and 
when  it  is  finally  ready  to  fall  into 
dust,  it  is  still  loyally  coloured  by  its 
influence.  If  it  is  cheated,  as  we 
ourselves  are  apt  to  be,  into  accept¬ 
ing  spurious  indigo,  made  up  of 
chemical  preparations,  it  speedily  dis¬ 
covers  the  cheat  and  refuses  its  col¬ 
ouring.  Perhaps  this  sympathy  is 
due  to  a  vegetable  kinship  and  like¬ 
ness  of  experience,  for  where  cotton 
will  grow,  indigo  will  also  flourish. 

In  printed  cottons  or  chintzes, 
there  is  a  reasonable  amount  of 
fidelity  to  colour,  and  if  chintz  cur- 


DRAPERIES 


151 


tains  are  well  chosen,  and  lined  to 
protect  them  from  the  sun,  their 
attractiveness  bears  a  fair  proportion 
to  their  durability. 

An  interlining  of  some  strong  and 
tried  colour  will  give  a  very  soft  and 
subtle  daylight  effect  in  a  room,  but 
this  is,  of  course,  lost  in  the  evening. 
The  expedient  of  an  under  colour  in 
curtain  linings  will  sometimes  give 
delightful  results  in  plain  or  un¬ 
printed  goods,  and  sometimes  a  lining 
with  a  strong  and  bold  design  will 
produce  a  charming  shadow  effect 
upon  a  tinted  surface — of  course 
each  new  experiment  must  be  tried 
before  one  can  be  certain  of  its  effect, 
and,  in  fact,  there  is  rather  an  ex¬ 
citing  uncertainty  as  to  results.  Yet 
there  are  infinite  possibilities  to  the 
householder  who  has  what  is  called 
the  artistic  instinct  and  the  leisure 
and  willingness  to  experiment,  and 
experiments  need  not  be  limited  to 


152  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

prints  or  to  cottons,  for  wonderful 
combinations  of  colour  are  possible 
in  silks  where  light  is  called  in  as  an 
influence  in  the  composition.  One 
must,  however,  expect  to  forego  these 
effects  except  in  daylight,  but  as  arti¬ 
ficial  light  has  its  own  subtleties  of 
effect,  the  one  can  be  balanced 
against  the  other.  In  my  own 
country-house  I  have  used  the  two 
strongest  colours— red  and  blue — in 
this  doubled  way,  with  delightful 
effect.  The  blue,  which  is  the  face 
colour,  presenting  long,  pure  folds  of 
blue,  with  warmed  reddish  shadows 
between,  while  at  sunset,  when  the 
rays  of  light  are  level,  the  variations 
are  like  a  sunset  sky. 

It  will  be  seen  by  these  sugges¬ 
tions  that  careful  selection,  and  some 
knowledge  of  the  qualities  of  different 
dyes,  will  go  far  toward  modifying 
the  want  of  permanence  of  colour 
and  lack  of  reflection  in  cottons ;  the 


DRAPERIES 


i53 


other  quality  of  stiffness,  or  want  of 
flexibility,  is  occasionally  overcome 
by  methods  of  weaving.  Indeed,  if 
the  manufacturer  or  weaver  had  a 
clear  idea  of  excellence  in  this  re¬ 
spect,  undoubtedly  the  natural  in¬ 
flexibility  of  fibre  could  be  greatly 
overcome. 

There  is  a  place  waiting  in  the 
world  of  art  and  decoration  for  what 
in  my  own  mind  I  call  “  the  missing 
textile.”  This  is  by  no  means  a  fabric 
of  cost,  for  among  its  other  virtues  it 
must  possess  that  of  cheapness.  To 
meet  an  almost  universal  want  it 
should  combine  inexpensiveness,  dura¬ 
bility,  softness,  and  absolute  fidelity 
of  colour,  and  these  four  qualities  are 
not  to  be  found  in  any  existing  tex¬ 
tile.  Three  of  them  —  cheapness, 
strength,  and  colour — were  possessed 
by  the  old-fashioned  true  indigo-blue 
denim  —  the  delightful  blue  which 
faded  into  something  as  near  the  col- 


154  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

our  of  the  flower  of  grass,  as  dead 
vegetable  material  can  approach  that 
which  is  full  of  living  juices — the 
possession  of  these  three  qualities 
doubled  and  trebled  the  amount  of  its 
manufacture  until  it  lost  one  of  them 
by  masquerading  in  aniline  indigo. 

Many  of  our  ordinary  cotton 
manufactures  are  strong  and  inex¬ 
pensive,  and  a  few  of  them  have  the 
flexibility  which  denim  lacks.  It  was 
possessed  in  an  almost  perfect  degree 
by  the  Canton,  or  fleeced,  flannels, 
manufactured  so  largely  a  lew  years 
ago,  and  called  art-drapery.  It 
lacked  colour,  however,  for  the  va¬ 
rious  dyes  given  to  it  during  its  brief 
period  of  favouritism  were  not  col¬ 
our  ;  they  were  merely  tint .  That 
strong,  good  word,  colour,  could  not 
be  applied  to  the  mixed  and  eva¬ 
nescent  dyes  with  which  this  soft 
and  estimable  material  clothed  itself 
withal.  It  was,  so  to  speak,  inverte- 


DRAPERIES 


155 


brate — it  had  no  backbone.  Besides 
this  lack  of  colour  stanchness,  it 
had  another  fault  which  helped  to 
overbalance  its  many  virtues.  It  was 
fatally  attractive  to  fire.  Its  soft, 
fluffy  surface  seemed  to  reach  out 
toward  flame,  and  the  contact  once 
made,  there  ensued  one  flash  of  in¬ 
stantaneous  blaze,  and  the  whole 
surface,  no  matter  if  it  were  a  table- 
cover,  a  hanging,  or  the  wall  covering 
a  room,  was  totally  destroyed.  Yet 
as  one  must  have  had  or  heard  of 
such  a  disastrous  experience  to  fear 
and  avoid  it,  this  proclivity  alone 
would  not  have  ended  its  popularity. 
It  was  probably  the  evanescent  char¬ 
acter  of  what  was  called  its  “  art- 
colour  ”  which  ended  the  career  of 
an  estimable  material,  and  if  the 
manufacturers  had  known  how  to 
eliminate  its  faults  and  adapt  its  vir¬ 
tues,  it  might  still  have  been  a  flour¬ 
ishing  textile. 


156  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

In  truth,  we  do  not  often  stop  to 
analyse  the  reasons  of  prolonged 
popular  favour ;  yet  nothing  is  more 
certain  than  that  there  is  reason,  and 
good  reason,  for  fidelity  in  public 
taste.  Popular  liking,  if  continued, 
is  always  founded  upon  certain  in¬ 
controvertible  virtues.  If  a  manu¬ 
facture  cannot  hold  its  own  for  ever 
in  public  favour,  it  is  because  it  fails 
in  some  important  particular  to  be 
what  it  should  be.  Products  of  the 
loom  must  have  lasting  virtues  if  they 
would  secure  lasting  esteem.  Blue 
denim  had  its  hold  upon  public  use 
principally  for  the  reason  that  it  pos¬ 
sessed  a  colour  superior  to  all  the 
chances  and  accidents  of  its  varied 
life.  It  is  true  it  was  a  colour  which 
commended  itself  to  general  liking, 
yet  if  as  stanch  and  steadfast  a  green 
or  red  could  be  imparted  to  an  equally 
cheap  and  durable  fabric,  it  would 
find  as  lasting  a  place  in  public  favour. 


DRAPERIES 


157 


It  is  quite  possible  that  in  the  near 
future  domestic  weavings  may  come 
to  the  aid  of  the  critical  house-lur- 
nisher,  so  that  the  qualities  of  strength 
and  pliability  may  be  united  with 
colour  which  is  both  water-fast  and 
sun-fast,  and  that  we  shall  be  able  to 
order  not  only  the  kind  of  material, 
but  the  exact  shade  of  colour  necessary 
to  the  perfection  of  our  houses. 

To  be  washable  as  well  as  durable 
is  also  a  great  point  in  favour  of  cot¬ 
ton  textiles.  The  English  chintzes 
with  which  the  high  post  bedsteads 
of  our  foremothers  were  hung  had  a 
yearly  baptism  of  family  soap-suds, 
and  came  from  it  with  their  designs 
of  gaily-crested,  almost  life-size  pheas¬ 
ants,  sitting  upon  inadequate  branches, 
very  little  subdued  by  the  process. 
Those  were  not  days  of  colour-study; 
and  harmony,  applied  to  things  of 
sight  instead  of  conduct,  was  not 
looked  for;  but  when  we  copy  the 


158  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

beautiful  old  furniture  of  that  day, 
we  may  as  well  demand  with  it  the 
quality  of  washableness  and  clean¬ 
ableness  which  went  with  all  its  be¬ 
longings. 

It  is  always  a  wonder  to  the  mascu¬ 
line,  that  the  feminine  mind  has  such 
an  ineradicable  love  of  draperies. 
The  man  despises  them,  but  to  the 
woman  they  are  the  perfecting  touch 
of  the  home,  hiding  or  disguising  all 
the  sharp  angles  of  windows  and 
doors,  and  making  of  them  oppor¬ 
tunities  of  beauty.  It  is  the  same 
instinct  with  which  she  tries  to  cover 
the  hard  angles  and  facts  of  daily  life 
and  make  of  them  virtuous  incite¬ 
ments.  As  long  as  the  woman  rules, 
house-curtains  will  be  a  joy  and  de¬ 
light  to  her.  Something  in  their  soft 
protection,  grace  of  line,  and  possible 
beauty  of  colour  appeals  to  her  as  no 
other  household  belonging  has  the 
power  to  do. 


DRAPERIES 


1 59 


The  long  folds  of  the  straight 
hanging  curtain  are  far  more  beautiful 
than  the  looped  and  festooned  crea¬ 
tions  which  were  held  in  vogue  by 
some  previous  generations,  and  indeed 
are  still  dear  to  the  hearts  of  profes¬ 
sional  upholsterers.  The  simpler  the 
treatment,  the  better  the  effect,  since 
natural  rather  than  distorted  line  is 
more  restful  and  enjoyable.  Qual¬ 
ity,  colour,  and  simple  graceful  lines 
are  quite  sufficient  elements  of  value 
in  these  important  adjuncts  of  house 
furnishing  and  decoration. 


CHAPTER  XIII 
FURNITURE 

^^LTHOUGH  the  forms  and  vari¬ 
eties  of  furniture  are  infinite, 
they  can  easily  be  classified  first  into 
the  two  great  divisions  of  good  and 
bad,  and  after  that  into  kinds  and 
styles ;  but  no  matter  how  good  the 
different  specimens  may  be,  or  to 
what  style  they  may  belong,  each  one 
is  subject  again  to  the  ruling  of  fit¬ 
ness.  Detached  things  may  be  both 
thoroughly  pleasing  and  thoroughly 
good  in  themselves,  but  unless  they 
are  appropriate  to  the  place  where, 
and  purpose  for  which  they  are  used, 
they  will  not  be  beautiful. 

It  is  well  to  reiterate  that  the  use 
to  which  a  room  is  put  must  always 
govern  its  furnishing  and  in  a  meas¬ 
ure  its  colour,  and  that  whatever  we 


160 


COLONIAL  CHAIRS  AND  SOFA  (BELONGING  TO  MRS.  RUTH  MCENERY  STUART) 


FURNITURE 


1 6 1 

put  in  it  must  be  placed  there  be¬ 
cause  it  is  appropriate  to  that  use, 
and  because  it  is  needed  for  com¬ 
pleteness.  It  is  misapplication  which 
makes  much  of  what  is  called  “  artis¬ 
tic  furnishing”  ridiculous.  An  old- 
fashioned  brass  preserving-kettle  and 
a  linen  or  wool  spinning-wheel  are 
in  place  and  appropriate  pieces  of 
furnishing  for  a  studio  ;  the  one  for 
colour,  and  the  other  for  form,  and 
because  also  they  may  serve  as  models; 
but  they  are  sadly  out  of  place  in  a 
modern  city  house,  or  even  in  the 
parlour  of  a  country  cottage. 

We  all  recognise  the  fact  that 
a  room  carefully  furnished  in  one 
style  makes  a  oneness  of  impression  ; 
whereas  if  things  are  brought  to¬ 
gether  heterogeneously,  even  if  each 
separate  thing  is  selected  for  its  own 
special  virtue  and  beauty,  the  feeling 
of  enjoyment  will  be  far  less  com- 


i6z  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

There  is  a  certain  kinship  in  pieces 
of  furniture  made  or  originated  at 
the  same  period  and  fashioned  by  a 
prevailing  sentiment  of  beauty,  which 
makes  them  harmonious  when  brought 
together ;  and  if  our  minds  are  in 
sympathy  with  that  period  and  style 
of  expression,  it  becomes  a  great  pleas¬ 
ure  to  use  it  as  a  means  of  expression 
for  ourselves.  Whatever  appeals  to 
us  as  the  best  or  most  beautiful 
thought  in  manufacture  we  have  a 
right  to  adopt,  but  we  should  study 
to  understand  the  circumstances  of 
its  production,  in  order  to  do  justice 
to  it  and  ourselves,  since  style  is 
evolved  from  surrounding  influences. 
It  would  seem  also  that  its  periods 
and  origin  should  not  be  too  far  re¬ 
moved  from  the  interests  and  ways 
of  our  own  time,  and  incongruous 
with  it,  because  it  would  be  impossi¬ 
ble  to  carry  an  utterly  foreign  period 
or  method  of  thought  into  all  the 


FURNITURE  163 

intimacies  of  domestic  life.  The  fad 
of  furnishing  different  rooms  in  differ¬ 
ent  periods  of  art,  and  in  the  fashion 
of  nations  and  peoples  whose  lives 
are  totally  dissimilar,  may  easily  be 
carried  too  far,  and  the  spirit  of 
home,  and  even  of  beauty,  be  lost0 
Of  course  this  applies  to  small,  and 
not  to  grand  houses,  which  are  al¬ 
ways  exceptions  to  the  purely  domes¬ 
tic  idea. 

There  are  many  reasons  why  one 
should  be  in  sympathy  with  what  is 
called  the  “  colonial  craze  ” ;  not 
only  because  colonial  days  are  a  part 
of  our  history,  but  because  colonial 
furniture  and  decorations  were  de¬ 
rived  directly  from  the  best  period  of 
English  art.  Its  original  designers 
were  masters  who  made  standards  in 
architectural  and  pictorial  as  well 
as  household  art.  The  Adams  broth¬ 
ers,  to  whom  many  of  the  best 
forms  of  the  period  are  referable, 


164  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

were  great  architects  as  well  as  great 
designers.  Even  so  distinguished  a 
painter  as  Hogarth  delighted  in  com¬ 
posing  symmetrical  iorms  for  furniture, 
and  preached  persistently  the  beauty 
of  curved  instead  of  rectangular  lines. 
It  was,  in  fact,  a  period  in  which 
superior  minds  expressed  themselves 
in  material  forms,  when  Flaxman, 
Wedgwood,  Chippendale  and  many 
others  of  their  day,  true  artists  in 
form,  wrote  their  thoughts  in  wood, 
stone,  and  pottery,  and  bequeathed 
them  to  future  ages.  Certainly  the 
work  of  such  minds  in  such  company 
must  outlast  mere  mechanical  efforts. 
It  is  interesting  to  note,  that  many  of 
the  Chippendale  chairs  keep  in  their 
under  construction  the  square  and 
simple  forms  of  a  much  earlier  period, 
while  the  upper  part,  the  back,  and 
seats  are  carved  into  curves  and  flori¬ 
ated  designs.  One  cannot  help  won¬ 
dering  whether  this  square  solidity 


FURNITURE 


165 


was  simply  a  reminiscence  or  persist¬ 
ence  of  earlier  forms,  or  a  conscious 
return  to  the  most  direct  principles 
of  weight-bearing  constructions. 

All  furniture  made  under  primitive 
conditions  naturally  depends  upon 
perpendicular  and  horizontal  forms, 
because  uninfluenced  construction 
considers  first  of  all  the  principle  of 
strength;  but  under  the  varied  influ¬ 
ences  of  the  Georgian  period  one 
hardly  expects  fidelity  to  first  princi¬ 
ples.  New  England  carpenters  and 
cabinet-makers  who  had  wrought 
under  the  masters  of  carpentry  and 
cabinet-work  in  England  brought 
with  them  not  only  skill  to  fashion, 
but  the  very  patterns  and  drawings 
from  which  Chippendale  and  Shera¬ 
ton  furniture  had  been  made  in  Eng¬ 
land.  Our  English  forefathers  were 
very  fond  of  the  St.  Domingo  ma¬ 
hogany,  brought  back  in  the  ship- 
bottoms  of  English  traders,  but  the 


1 66  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

English  workmen  who  made  furni¬ 
ture  in  the  new  world,  while  they 
adopted  this  foreign  wood,  were  not 
slow  to  appreciate  the  wild  cherry, 
and  the  different  maples  and  oak 
and  nut  woods  which  they  found  in 
America.  They  were  woods  easy  to 
work,  and  apt  to  take  on  polish 
and  shining  surface.  The  cabinet¬ 
makers  liked  also  the  abnormal  speci¬ 
mens  of  maple  where  the  fibre  grew 
in  close  waves,  called  curled  maple, 
as  well  as  the  great  roots  flecked  and 
spotted  with  minute  knots,  known  as 
dotted  maple. 

All  these  things  went  into  colonial 
furniture,  so  beautifully  cut,  so  care¬ 
fully  dowelled  and  put  together,  so 
well  made,  that  many  of  the  things 
have  become  heirlooms  in  the  families 
for  which  they  were  constructed.  I 
remember  admiring  a  fine  old  cherry 
book-case  in  Mr.  Lowell’s  library  at 
Cambridge,  and  being  told  by  the 


FURNITURE 


167 


poet  that  it  had  belonged  to  his 
grandfather.  When  I  spoke  of  the 
comparative  rarity  of  such  possessions 
he  answered  :  a  Oh,  anyone  can  have 
his  grandfather’s  furniture  if  he  will 
wait  a  hundred  years !  ” 

Nevertheless,  with  modern  meth¬ 
ods  of  manufacture  it  is  by  no  means 
certain  that  a  hundred  years  will 
secure  possession  of  the  furniture  we 
buy  to-day  to  our  grandchildren.  In 
those  early  days  it  was  not  uncom¬ 
mon,  it  was  indeed  the  custom,  for 
some  one  of  the  men  who  were  called 
“  journeymen  cabinet-makers  ” — that 
is,  men  who  had  served  their  time 
and  learned  their  trade,  but  had  not 
yet  settled  down  to  a  fixed  place  and 
shop  of  their  own — to  take  up  an 
abode  in  the  house  with  the  family 
which  had  built  it,  for  a  year,  or 
even  two  or  three  years,  carrying  on 
the  work  in  some  out-house  or  de¬ 
pendence,  choosing  and  seasoning  the 


1 68  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

wood,  and  measuring  the  furniture 
for  the  spaces  where  it  was  to  stand. 

There  was  a  fine  fitness  in  such  fur¬ 
nishing  ;  it  was  as  if  the  different 
pieces  actually  grew  where  they  were 
placed,  and  it  is  small  wonder  that 
so  built  and  fashioned  they  should 
possess  almost  a  human  interest. 
Direct  and  special  thought  and  effort 
were  incorporated  with  the  furniture 
from  the  very  first,  and  it  easily  ex¬ 
plains  the  excellences  and  finenesses 
of  its  fashioning. 

There  is  an  interesting  house  in 
Flushing,  Long  Island,  where  such 
furniture  still  stands  in  the  rooms 
where  it  was  put  together  in  1664, 
and  where  it  is  so  fitted  to  spaces  it 
has  filled  during  the  passing  centuries, 
that  it  would  be  impossible  to  carry  it 
through  the  narrow  doors  and  passages, 
which,  unlike  our  present  halls,  were 
made  for  the  passing  to  and  fro  of 
human  beings,  and  not  of  furniture. 


COLONIAL  MANTEL  AND  ENGLISH  HOB-GRATE  (SITTING-ROOM  IN  MRS.  CANDACE 
WHEELER’S  HOUSE) 


i 


FURNITURE 


169 


It  is  this  kind  of  interest  which 
attaches  us  to  colonial  furniture  and 
adds  to  the  value  of  its  beauty  and 
careful  adaptation  to  human  con¬ 
venience.  In  the  roomy  “high  boys” 
which  we  find  in  old  houses  there  are 
places  for  everything.  They  were  made 
for  the  orderly  packing  and  keeping 
of  valuable  things,  in  closetless  rooms, 
and  they  were  made  without  project¬ 
ing  corners  and  cornices,  because  life 
was  lived  in  smaller  spaces  than  at 
present.  They  were  the  best  prod¬ 
uct  of  a  thoughtful  time — where  if 
manufacture  lacked  some  of  the  ma¬ 
chinery  and  appliances  of  to-day,  it 
was  at  least  not  rushed  by  breathless 
competition,  but  could  progress  slowly 
in  careful  leisure.  Of  course  we  can¬ 
not  all  have  colonial  furniture,  and 
indeed  it  would  not  be  according  to 
the  spirit  of  our  time,  for  the  arts 
of  our  own  day  are  to  be  encouraged 
and  fostered — but  we  can  buy  the 


170  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

best  of  the  things  which  are  made  in 
our  time,  the  best  in  style,  in  inten¬ 
tion,  in  fittingness,  and  above  all  in 
carefulness  and  honesty  of  construc¬ 
tion. 

For  some  reason  the  quality  of 
durability  seems  to  be  wanting  in 
modern  furniture.  Our  things  are 
fashioned  of  the  same  woods,  but 
something  in  the  curing  or  prepara¬ 
tion  of  them  has  weakened  the  fibre 
and  made  it  brittle.  Probably  the 
gradual  evaporation  of  the  tree-juices 
which  old-time  cabinet-makers  were 
willing  to  wait  for,  left  the  shrunken 
sinews  of  the  wood  in  better  condition 
than  is  possible  with  our  hurried  and 
violent  kiln-dried  methods.  What  is 
gained  in  time  in  the  one  place  is  lost 
in  another.  Nature  refuses  to  enter 
into  our  race  for  speedy  completion, 
and  if  we  hurry  her  natural  processes 
we  shorten  our  lease  of  ownership. 

As  a  very  apt  illustration  of  this 


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171 


fact,  I  remember  coming  into  posses¬ 
sion  some  twenty  years  ago  of  an  oak 
chair  which  had  stood,  perhaps,  for 
more  than  two  hundred  years  in  a 
Long  Island  farm-house.  When  I 
found  it,  it  had  been  long  relegated 
to  kitchen  use  and  was  covered  with 
a  crust  of  variously  coloured  paints 
which  had  accumulated  during  the 
two  centuries  of  its  existence.  The 
fashion  of  it  was  rare,  and  had  prob¬ 
ably  been  evolved  by  some  early 
American  cabinet-maker,  for  while  it 
had  all  and  even  more  than  the  grace 
of  the  high-backed  Chippendale  pat¬ 
terns,  it  was  better  fitted  to  the 
rounded  surfaces  of  the  human  body. 
It  was  a  spindle  chair  with  a  slightly 
hollowed  seat,  the  rim  of  the  back 
rounded  to  a  loop  which  was  con¬ 
tinued  into  arm-rests,  which  spread 
into  thickened  blades  for  hand-rests. 
Being  very  much  in  love  with  the 
grace  and  ease  of  it,  I  took  it  to  a 


17 2  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

manufacturer  to  be  reproduced  in 
mahogany,  and  he,  with  a  far-sighted 
sagacity,  flooded  the  market  with  that 
particular  pattern. 

We  are  used — and  with  good  rea¬ 
son — to  consider  mahogany  as  a  dura¬ 
ble  wood,  but  of  the  half-dozen  of 
mahogany  copies  of  the  old  oak  chair, 
each  one  has  suffered  some  break  of 
legs  or  arms  or  spindles,  while  the  orig¬ 
inal  remains  as  firm  in  its  withered 
old  age  as  it  was  the  day  I  rescued  it 
from  the  “  out-kitchen  ”  of  the  Long 
Island  farm-house. 

For  the  next  fifty  years  after  the 
close  of  our  colonial  history,  the 
colonial  cabinet-makers  in  New  Eng¬ 
land  and  the  northern  middle  states 
continued  to  flourish,  evolving  an 
occasional  good  variation  from  what 
may  be  called  colonial  forms.  Rush- 
and  flag-bottomed  chairs  and  chairs 
with  seats  of  twisted  rawhide— the 
frames  often  gilded  and  painted — 


FURNITURE 


173 


sometimes  took  the  place  of  wrought 
mahogany,  except  in  the  best  rooms 
of  great  houses.  Many  of  these  are 
of  excellent  shape  and  construction, 
and  specially  interesting  as  an  adap¬ 
tation  of  natural  products  of  the 
country.  Undoubtedly,  with  our  in¬ 
genious  modern  appliances,  we  could 
make  as  good  furniture  as  was  made 
in  Chippendale’s  and  Sheraton’s  day, 
with  far  less  expenditure  of  effort ; 
but  the  demon  of  competition  in 
trade  will  not  allow  it.  We  must 
use  all  material,  perfect  or  imperfect; 
we  cannot  afford  to  select.  We  must 
cover  knots  and  imperfections  with 
composition,  and  pass  them  on.  We 
must  use  the  cheapest  glue,  and  save 
an  infinitesimal  sum  in  the  length  of 
our  dowels ;  we  must  varnish  instead 
of  polishing,  or  “the  other  man  ”  will 
get  the  better  of  us.  If  we  did  not 
do  these  things  our  furniture  would 
be  better,  but  “  the  other  man  ” 


174  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

would  sell  more,  because  he  could 
sell  more  cheaply. 

Since  the  revived  interest  in  the 
making  of  furniture,  we  find  an  oc¬ 
casional  and  marked  recurrence  to 
primitive  form — on  each  occasion  the 
apparently  new  style  taking  on  the 
name  of  the  man  who  produced  it. 

In  our  own  day  we  have  seen  the 
66  Eastlake  furniture  ”  appear  and  dis¬ 
appear,  succeeded  by  the  “  Morris 
furniture,”  which  is  undoubtedly  bet¬ 
ter  adapted  to  our  varied  wants.  At 
present,  mortising  and  do  welling  have 
come  to  the  front  as  proper  processes, 
especially  for  table-building ;  and  this 
time  the  style  appears  under  the  name 
of  “  Mission  furniture.”  Much  of 
this  is  extremely  well  suited  for  cot¬ 
tage  furnishing,  but  the  occasional 
exaggeration  of  the  style  takes  one 
back  not  only  to  early,  but  the  earli¬ 
est  English  art;  when  chairs  were  im¬ 
movable  seats  or  blocks,  and  tables 


FURNITURE 


*75 


absolute  fixtures  on  account  of  the 
weighty  legs  upon  which  they  were 
built.  In  short,  the  careful  and 


cultivated  decorator  finds  it  as  im¬ 
perative  to  guard  against  exagger¬ 
ated  simplicity  as  unsupported  pret¬ 
tiness. 

Fortunately  there  has  been  a  great 
deal  of  attention  paid  to  good  cabinet 
work  within  the  last  few  years,  and 
although  the  method  of  its  making 
lacks  the  human  motive  and  the 
human  interest  of  former  days,  it  is 
still  a  good  expression  of  the  art  of 
to-day,  and,  at  its  best  is  worthy  to 
be  carried  down  the  generations  as 
one  of  the  steps  in  the  evolutions  of 
time.  What  we  have  to  do,  is  to 
learn  to  discriminate  between  good 
and  bad,  to  appreciate  the  best  in 
design  and  workmanship,  even  al¬ 
though  we  cannot  afford  to  buy  it. 
In  this  case  we  should  learn  to  do  with 
less.  As  a  rule  our  houses  are  crowded. 


176  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

If  we  are  able  to  buy  a  few  good 
things,  we  are  apt  instead  to  buy 
many  only  moderately  good,  for  lav¬ 
ish  possession  seems  to  be  a  sort  of 
passion,  or  birthright,  of  Americans. 
It  follows  that  we  fill  our  houses  with 
heterogeneous  collections  of  furniture, 
new  and  old,  good  and  bad,  appro¬ 
priate  or  inappropriate,  as  the  case 
may  be,  with  a  result  of  living  in 
seeming  luxury,  but  a  luxury  without 
proper  selection  or  true  value.  To 
have  less  would  in  many  cases  be  to 
have  more— more  tranquillity  of  life, 
more  ease  of  mind,  more  knowledge 
and  more  real  enjoyment. 

There  is  another  principle  which 
can  be  brought  into  play  in  this  case, 
and  that  is  the  one  of  buying — not  a 
costly  kind  of  thing,  but  the  best  of 
its  kind.  If  it  is  a  choice  in  chairs, 
for  instance,  let  it  be  the  best  cane- 
seated,  or  rush-bottomed  chair  that 
is  made,  instead  of  the  second  or  third 


SOFA  DESIGNED  BY  MRS.  CANDACE  WHEELER  FOR 


FURNITURE 


1 77 


best  upholstered  or  leather-covered 
one.  If  it  is  a  question  of  tables,  buy 
the  simplest  form  made  of  flawless 
wood  and  with  best  finish,  instead  of 
a  bargain  in  elaborately  turned  or 
scantily  carved  material.  If  it  is  in 
bedsteads,  a  plain  brass  or  good 
enamelled  iron,  or  a  simple  form  in 
black  walnut,  instead  of  a  cheap  in¬ 
laid  wood — and  so  on  through  the 
whole  category.  A  good  chintz  or 
cotton  is  better  for  draperies,  than 
flimsy  silk  or  brocade ;  and  when  all 
is  done  the  very  spirit  of  truth  will 
sit  enthroned  in  the  household,  and 
we  shall  find  that  all  things  have 
been  brought  into  harmony  by  her 
laws. 

Although  the  furnishing  of  a  house 
should  be  one  of  the  most  pains¬ 
taking  and  studied  of  pursuits,  there 
is  certainly  nothing  which  is  at  the 
same  time  so  fascinating  and  so  flat¬ 
tering  in  its  promise  of  future  enjoy- 


178  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

ment.  It  is  like  the  making  of  a 
picture  as  far  as  possibility  of  beauty 
is  concerned,  but  a  picture  within 
and  against  which  one’s  life,  and  the 
life  of  the  family,  is  to  be  lived.  It 
is  a  bit  of  creative  art  in  itself,  and 
one  which  concerns  us  so  closely  as 
to  be  a  very  part  of  us.  We  enjoy 
every  separate  thing  we  may  find  or 
select  or  procure — not  only  for  the 
beauty  and  goodness  which  is  in  it, 
but  for  its  contribution  to  the  general 
whole.  And  in  knowledge  of  ap¬ 
plied  and  manufactured  art,  the  fur¬ 
nishing  of  a  house  is  truly  “  the  be¬ 
ginning  of  wisdom.”  One  learns  to 
appreciate  what  is  excellent  in  the 
new  from  study  and  appreciation  of 
quality  in  the  old. 

It  is  the  fascination  of  this  study 
which  has  made  a  multiplication  of 
shops  and  collections  of  “  antiques  ” 
in  every  quarter  of  the  city.  Many 
a  woman  begins  from  the  shop- 


FURNITURE 


1 79 


keeper’s  point  of  view  of  the  value 
of  mere  age,  and  learns  by  experience 
that  age,  considered  by  itself,  is  a  dis¬ 
qualification,  and  that  it  gives  value 
only  when  the  art  which  created  the 
antique  has  been  lost  or  has  greatly 
deteriorated.  If  one  can  find  as  good, 
or  a  better  thing  in  art  and  quality, 
made  to-day — by  all  means  buy  the 
thing  of  to-day,  and  let  yourself  and 
your  children  be  credited  with  the 
hundred  or  two  years  of  wear  which 
is  in  it.  We  can  easily  see  that  it  is 
wiser  to  buy  modern  iridescent  glass, 
fitted  to  our  use,  and  yet  carrying  all 
the  fascinating  lustre  of  ancient  glass, 
than  to  sigh  for  the  possession  of  some 
unbuyable  thing  belonging  to  dead 
and  gone  Caesars.  And  the  case  is 
as  true  of  other  modern  art  and 
modern  inventions,  if  the  art  is  good, 
and  the  inventions  suitable  to  our 
wants  and  needs. 

Yet  in  spite  of  the  goodness  of 


1 80  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

much  that  is  new,  there  is  a  subtle 
pleasure  in  turning  over,  and  even  in 
appropriating,  the  things  that  are  old. 
There  are  certain  fenced-in-blocks 
on  the  east  side  of  New  York  City 
where  for  many  years  the  choice  parts 
of  old  houses  have  been  deposited. 
As  fashion  and  wealth  have  changed 
their  locality — treading  slowly  up 
from  the  Battery  to  Central  Park — 
many  beautiful  bits  of  construction 
have  been  left  behind  in  the  aban¬ 
doned  houses- — either  disregarded  on 
account  of  change  in  popular  taste, 
or  unappreciated  by  reason  of  want 
of  knowledge.  For  the  few  whose 
knowledge  was  competent,  there 
were  things  to  be  found  in  the  sec¬ 
ond-hand  yards,  precious  beyond 
comparison  with  anything  of  con¬ 
temporaneous  manufacture. 

There  were  panelled  front  doors 
with  beautifully  fluted  columns  and 


FURNITURE 


1 8 1 


carved  capitals,  surmounted  by  half¬ 
ovals  of  curiously  designed  sashes ; 
there  were  beautifully  wrought  iron 
railings,  and  elaborate  newel-posts 
of  mahogany,  brass  door-knobs  and 
hinges,  and  English  hob-grates,  and 
crystal  chandeliers  of  cost  and  brill¬ 
iance,  and  panelled  wainscots  of  oak 
and  mahogany ;  chimney-pieces  in 
marble  and  wood  of  an  excellence 
which  we  are  almost  vainly  trying 
to  compass,  and  all  of  them  to  be 
bought  at  the  price  of  lumber. 

These  are  the  things  to  make  one 
who  remembers  them  critical  about 
the  collections  to  be  found  in  the 
antique  shops  of  to-day,  and  yet 
such  shops  are  enticing  and  fash¬ 
ionable,  and  the  quest  of  antiques 
will  go  on  until  we  become  convinced 
of  the  art-value  and  the  equal  merit 
of  the  new  —  which  period  many 
things  seem  to  indicate  is  not  far  off. 


iSz  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

In  those  days  there  was  but  one 
antique  shop  in  all  New  York  which 
was  devoted  to  the  sale  of  old  things, 
to  furniture,  pictures,  statuary,  and 
what  Ruskin  calls  “ portable  art”  of 
all  kinds.  It  was  a  place  where  one 
might  go,  crying  “  new  lamps  for  old 
ones”  with  a  certainty  of  profit  in 
the  transaction.  In  later  years  it  has 
been  known  as  Syphers ,  and  although 
one  of  many,  instead  of  a  single  one, 
is  still  a  place  of  fascinating  possi¬ 
bilities. 

To  sum  up  the  gospel  of  furnish¬ 
ing,  we  need  only  fall  back  upon  the 
principles  of  absolute  fitness,  actual 
goodness,  and  real  beauty.  If  the 
furniture  of  a  well-coloured  room 
possesses  these  three  qualities,  the 
room  as  a  whole  can  hardly  fail  to  be 
lastingly  satisfactory.  It  must  be  re¬ 
membered,  however,  that  it  is  a  trin¬ 
ity  of  virtues.  No  piece  of  furniture 
should  be  chosen  because  it  is  intrin- 


FURNITURE 


•83 


sically  good  or  genuinely  beautiful, 
if  it  has  not  also  its  use — and  this 
rule  applies  to  all  rooms,  with  the 
one  exception  of  the  drawing-room. 

The  necessity  of  use ,  governing  the 
style  of  furnishing  in  a  room,  is  very 
well  understood.  Thus,  while  both 
drawing-room  and  dining-room  must 
express  hospitality,  it  is  of  a  different 
kind  or  degree.  That  of  the  draw- 
ing-room  is  ceremonious  and  punc¬ 
tilious,  and  represents  the  family  in 
its  relation  to  society,  while  the  din¬ 
ing-room  is  far  more  intimate,  and 
belongs  to  the  family  in  its  relation 
to  friends.  In  fact,  as  the  dining¬ 
room  is  the  heart  of  the  house,  its 
furnishing  would  naturally  be  quite 
different  in  feeling  and  character  from 
the  drawing-room,  although  it  might 
be  fully  as  lavish  in  cost.  It  would 
be  stronger,  less  conservative,  and  al¬ 
together  more  personal  in  its  expres¬ 
sion.  Family  portraits  and  family 


184  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

silver  give  the  personal  note  which 
we  like  to  recognise  in  our  friends’ 
dining-rooms,  because  the  intimacy 
of  the  room  makes  even  family  his¬ 
tory  in  place. 

In  moderate  houses,  even  the  draw¬ 
ing-room  is  too  much  a  family  room 
to  allow  it  to  be  entirely  emancipated 
from  the  law  of  use,  but  in  houses 
which  are  not  circumscribed  in  space, 
and  where  one  or  more  rooms  are 
set  apart  for  social  rather  than  do¬ 
mestic  life,  it  is  natural  and  proper  to 
gather  in  them  things  which  stand, 
primarily,  for  art  and  beauty- — which 
satisfy  the  needs  of  the  mind  as  dis¬ 
tinct  from  those  of  bodily  comfort. 
Things  which  belong  in  the  category 
of  u  unrelated  beauty”  may  be  ap¬ 
propriately  gathered  in  such  a  room, 
because  the  use  of  it  is  to  please  the 
eye  and  excite  the  interest  of  our 
social  world;  therefore  a  table  which 
is  a  marvel  of  art,  but  not  of  con- 


FURNITURE 


i8S 

venience,  or  a  casket  which  is  beau¬ 
tiful  to  look  at,  but  of  no  practical 
use,  are  in  accordance  with  the  idea 
of  the  room.  They  help  compose  a 
picture,  not  only  for  the  eyes  of 
friends  and  acquaintances,  but  for 
the  education  of  the  family. 

It  follows  that  an  artistic  and  lux¬ 
urious  drawing-room  may  be  a  true 
family  expression ;  it  may  speak  of 
travel  and  interest  in  the  artistic  de¬ 
velopment  of  mankind ;  but  even 
where  the  experiences  of  the  family 
have  been  wide  and  liberal,  if  the 
house  and  circumstances  are  narrow, 
a  luxurious  interior  is  by  no  means 
a  happiness. 

It  may  seem  quite  superfluous  to 
give  advice  against  luxury  in  furnish¬ 
ing  except  where  it  is  warranted 
by  exceptional  means,  because  each 
family  naturally  adjusts  its  furnishing 
to  its  own  needs  and  circumstances; 
but  the  influence  of  mere  beauty  is 


1 86  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

very  powerful,  and  many  a  costly  toy 
drifts  into  homes  where  it  does  not 
rightly  belong,  and  where,  instead  of 
being  an  educational  or  elevating  in¬ 
fluence,  it  is  a  source  of  mental  de¬ 
terioration,  from  its  conflict  with  un¬ 
sympathetic  circumstances.  A  long 
and  useful  chapter  might  be  written 
upon  “  art  out  of  place,”  but  nothing 
which  could  be  said  upon  the  subject 
would  apply  to  that  incorporation  of 
art  and  beauty  with  furniture  and  in¬ 
terior  surroundings,  which  is  the  effort 
and  object  of  every  true  artist  and  art- 
lover. 

The  fact  to  be  emphasised  is,  that 
objets  cTart— beautiful  in  themselves 
and  costly  because  of  the  superior 
knowledge,  artistic  feeling,  and  pa¬ 
tient  labour  which  have  produced 
them— demand  care  and  reserve  for 
their  preservation*,  which  is  not  avail¬ 
able  in  a  household  where  the  first 
motive  of  everything  must  be  minis- 


FURNITURE 


187 


try  to  comfort.  Art  in  the  shape  of 
pictures  is  fortunately  exempt  from 
this  rule,  and  may  dignify  and  beau¬ 
tify  every  room  in  the  house  without 
being  imperilled  by  contact  in  the 
exigencies  of  use. 

Following  out  this  idea,  a  house 
where  circumstances  demand  that 
there  shall  be  no  drawing-room,  and 
where  the  family  sitting-room  must 
also  answer  for  the  reception  of 
guests,  a  perfect  beauty  and  dignity 
may  be  achieved  by  harmony  of 
colour,  beauty  of  form,  and  appro¬ 
priateness  to  purpose,  and  this  may 
be  carried  to  almost  any  degree  of 
pgi*jFction  by  the  introduction  and 
accompaniment  of  pictures.  In  this 
case  art  is  a  part  of  the  room,  as  well 
as  an  adornment  of  it.  It  is  kneaded 
into  every  article  of  furniture.  It  is 
the  daily  bread  of  art  to  which  we 
are  all  entitled,  and  which  can  make 
a  small  country  home,  or  a  smaller 


1 88  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

city  apartment,  as  enjoyable  and  ele¬ 
vating  as  if  it  were  filled  with  the 
luxuries  of  art. 

But  one  may  say,  “  It  requires 
knowledge  to  do  this ;  much  knowl¬ 
edge  in  the  selection  of  the  compara¬ 
tively  few  things  which  are  to  make 
up  such  an  interior,”  and  that  is 
true — -and  the  knowledge  is  to  be 
proved  every  time  we  come  to  the 
test  of  buying.  Yet  it  is  a  curious 
fact  that  the  really  good  thing,  the 
thing  which  is  good  in  art  as  well  as 
construction,  will  inevitably  be  chosen 
by  an  intelligent  buyer,  instead  of 
the  thing  which  is  bad  in  art  and  in 
construction.  Fortunately,  one  can 
see  good  examples  in  the  shops  of 
to-day,  where  twenty  years  ago  at 
best  only  honest  and  respectable  fur¬ 
niture  was  on  exhibition.  One  must 
rely  somewhat  on  the  character  of 
the  places  from  which  one  buys, 
and  not  expect  good  styles  and  relia- 


RUSTIC  SOFA  AND  TABLES  IN  “PENNYROYAL”  (IN  MRS.  BOUDINOT  KEITH’S  COTTACE.  ONTEORA) 


FURNITURE  i89 

ble  manufacture  where  commercial 
success  is  the  dominant  note  of  the 
business.  In  truth  the  careful  buyer 
is  not  so  apt  to  fail  in  quality  as  in 
harmony,  because  grade  as  well  as 
style  in  different  articles  and  manu¬ 
factures  is  to  be  considered.  What 
is  perfectly  good  in  one  grade  of 
manufacture  will  not  be  in  harmony 
with  a  higher  or  lower  grade  in 
another.  Just  as  we  choose  our 
grade  of  floor-covering  from  ingrain 
to  Aubusson ,  we  must  choose  the 
grade  of  other  furnishings.  Even  an 
inexperienced  buyer  would  be  apt  to 
feel  this,  and  would  know  that  if  she 
found  a  simple  ingrain-filling  appro¬ 
priate  to  a  bed-chamber,  maple  or 
enamelled  furniture  would  belong  to 
it,  instead  of  more  costly  inlaid  or 
carved  pieces. 

It  may  be  well  to  reiterate  the  fact 
that  the  predominant  use  of  each  room 
in  a  house  gives  the  clew  to  the  best 


190  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

rules  of  treatment  in  decoration  and 
furniture.  For  instance,  the  hall, 
being  an  intermediate  space  between 
in  and  out  of  doors,  should  be  col¬ 
oured  and  furnished  in  direct  refer¬ 
ence  to  this,  and  to  its  common  use 
as  a  thoroughfare  by  all  members  of 
the  family.  It  is  not  a  place  of  pro¬ 
longed  occupation,  and  may  therefore 
properly  be  without  the  luxury  and 
ease  of  lounges  and  lounging-chairs. 
But  as  long  as  it  serves  both  as  en¬ 
trance-room  to  the  house  and  for 
carrying  the  stairways  to  the  upper 
floors,  it  should  be  treated  in  such  a 
way  as  to  lead  up  to  and  prepare  the 
mind  for  whatever  of  inner  luxury 
there  may  be  in  the  house.  At  the 
same  time  it  should  preserve  some¬ 
thing  of  the  simplicity  and  freedom 
from  all  attempt  at  effect  which  be¬ 
long  to  out-of-door  life.  The  dif¬ 
ference  between  its  decoration  and 
furniture  and  that  of  other  divisions 


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191 


of  the  house  should  be  principally  in 
surface,  and  not  in  colour.  Differ¬ 
ence  of  surface  is  secured  by  the  use 
of  materials  which  are  permanent  and 
durable  in  effect,  such  as  wood,  plas¬ 
ter,  and  leather.  These  may  all  be 
coloured  without  injury  to  their  im¬ 
pression  of  permanency,  although  it 
is  generally  preferable  to  take  advan¬ 
tage  of  indigenous  or  “  inherent  col¬ 
our  ”  like  the  natural  yellows  and 
russets  of  wood  and  leather.  When 
these  are  used  for  both  walls  and 
ceiling,  it  will  be  found  that,  to  give 
the  necessary  variation,  and  prevent 
an  impression  of  monotony  and  dul~ 
ness,  some  tint  must  be  added  in  the 
ornament  of  the  surface,  which  could 
be  gained  by  a  forcible  deepening  or 
variation  of  the  general  tone,  like  a 
deep  golden  brown,  which  is  the  low-* 
est  tone  of  the  scale  of  yellow,  or  a 
red  which  would  be  only  a  variant 
of  the  prevailing  tint.  The  intro- 


192  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

duction  of  an  opposing  or  contrasting 
tint,  like  pale  blue  in  small  masses  as 
compared  with  the  general  tint,  even 
if  it  is  in  so  small  a  space  as  that  of  a 
water-colour  on  the  wall,  adds  the 
necessary  contrast,  and  enlivens  and 
invigorates  a  harmony. 

No  colour  carries  with  it  a  more 
appropriate  influence  at  the  entrance 
of  a  house  than  red  in  its  different 
values.  Certain  tints  of  it  which  are 
known  both  as  Pompeiian  and  Da¬ 
mascus  red  have  sufficient  yellow  in 
their  composition  to  fall  in  with  the 
yellows  of  oiled  wood,  and  give  the 
charm  of  a  variant  but  related  colour. 
In  its  stronger  and  deeper  tones  it  is 
in  direct  contrast  to  the  green  of 
abundant  foliage,  and  therefore  a 
good  colour  for  the  entrance-hall  or 
vestibule  of  a  country-house ;  while 
the  paler  tones,  which  run  into  pinks, 
hold  the  same  opposing  relation  to 
the  gray  and  blue  of  the  sea-shore. 


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193 


If  walls  and  ceiling  are  of  wood,  a 
rug  of  which  the  prevailing  colour  is 
red  will  often  give  the  exact  note 
which  is  needed  to  preserve  the  room 
from  monotony  and  insipidity.  A 
stair-carpet  is  a  valuable  point  to 
make  in  a  hall,  and  it  is  well  to  re¬ 
serve  all  opposing  colour  for  this  one 
place,  which,  as  it  rises,  meets  all 
sight  on  a  level,  and  makes  its  con¬ 
trast  directly  and  unmistakably.  A 
stair-carpet  has  other  reasons  for  use 
in  a  country-house  than  aesthetic 
ones,  as  the  stairs  are  conductors  of 
sound  to  all  parts  of  the  house,  and 
should  therefore  be  muffled,  and  be¬ 
cause  a  carpeted  stair  furnishes  much 
safer  footing  for  the  two  family  ex¬ 
tremes  of  childhood  and  age. 

The  furniture  of  the  hall  should 
not  be  fantastic,  as  some  cabinet¬ 
makers  seem  to  imagine.  Impossible 
twists  in  the  supports  of  tables  and 
chairs  are  perhaps  more  objectionable 


i94  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

in  this  first  vestibule  or  entrance  to 
the  house  than  elsewhere,  because 
the  mind  is  not  quite  free  from  out- 
of-door  influences,  or  ready  to  take 
pleasure  in  the  vagaries  of  the  human 
fancy.  Simple  chairs,  settles,  and 
tables,  more  solid  perhaps  than  is 
desirable  in  other  parts  of  the  house, 
are  what  the  best  natural,  as  well  as 
the  best  cultivated,  taste  demands. 
If  there  is  one  place  more  than  an¬ 
other  where  a  picture  performs  its 
full  work  of  suggestion  and  decora¬ 
tion,  it  is  in  a  hall  which  is  otherwise 
bare  of  ornament.  Pictures  in  din¬ 
ing-rooms  make  very  little  impression 
as  pictures,  because  the  mind  is  en¬ 
grossed  with  the  first  and  natural 
purpose  of  the  room,  and  conse¬ 
quently  not  in  a  waiting  and  easily 
impressible  mood ;  but  in  a  hall,  if 
one  stops  for  even  a  moment,  the 
thoughts  are  at  leisure,  and  waiting 
to  be  interested.  Aside  from  the 


FURNITURE 


1 95 


colour  effect,  which  may  be  so  man 
aged  as  to  be  very  valuable,  pictures 
hung  in  a  hall  are  full  of  suggestion 
of  wider  mental  and  physical  life,  and, 
like  books,  are  indications  of  the 
tastes  and  experiences  of  the  family. 
Of  course  there  are  country-houses 
where  the  halls  are  built  with  fire¬ 
places,  and  windows  commanding 
favourite  views,  and  are  really  in¬ 
tended  for  family  sitting-rooms  and 
gathering-places ;  in  this  case  it  is 
generally  entered  from  a  vestibule 
which  carries  the  character  of  an  en¬ 
trance-hall,  leaving  the  large  room 
to  be  furnished  more  luxuriously,  as 
is  proper  to  a  sitting-room. 

The  dining-room  shares  with  the 
hall  a  purpose  common  to  the  life  of 
the  family ;  and,  while  it  admits  of 
much  more  variety  and  elaboration, 
that  which  is  true  of  the  hall  is  equal¬ 
ly  true  of  the  dining-room,  viz.:  that 
it  should  be  treated  with  materials 


196  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

which  are  durable  and  have  surface 
quality,  although  its  decoration  should 
be  preferably  with  china  rather  than 
with  pictures.  It  is  important  that 
the  colour  of  a  dining-room  should 
be  pervading  colour  —  that  is,  that 
walls  and  ceiling  should  be  kept  to¬ 
gether  by  the  use  of  one  colour  only, 
in  different  degrees  of  strength. 

For  many  reasons,  but  principally 
because  it  is  the  best  material  to  use 
in  a  dining-room,  the  rich  yellows  of 
oiled  wood  make  the  most  desirable 
colour  and  surface.  The  rug,  the 
curtains,  the  portieres  and  screen,  can 
then  be  of  any  good  tint  which  the 
exposure  of  the  room  and  the  decora¬ 
tion  of  the  china  seem  to  indicate. 
If  it  has  a  cold,  northern  exposure, 
reds  or  gold  browns  are  indicated ; 
but  if  it  is  a  sunny  and  warm-looking 
room,  green  or  strong  India  blue  will 
be  found  more  satisfactory  in  simple 
houses.  The  materials  used  in  cur- 


FURNITURE 


197 


tains,  portieres,  and  screens  should  be 
of  cotton  or  linen,  or  some  plain 
woollen  goods  which  are  as  easily 
washable.  A  one-coloured,  heavy- 
threaded  cotton  canvas,  a  linen  in 
solid  colour,  or  even  indigo-blue  do¬ 
mestic,  all  make  extremely  effective 
and  appropriate  furnishings.  The 
variety  of  blue  domestic  which  is 
called  denim  is  the  best  of  all  fabrics 
for  this  kind  of  furnishing,  if  the  col¬ 
our  is  not  too  dark. 

The  prettiest  country  house  din¬ 
ing-room  I  know  is  ceiled  and  wain¬ 
scoted  with  wood,  the  walls  above 
the  wainscoting  carrying  an  ingrain 
paper  of  the  same  tone  ;  the  line  of 
division  between  the  wainscot  and 
wall  being  broken  by  a  row  of  old 
blue  India  china  plates,  arranged  in 
groups  of  different  sizes  and  running 
entirely  around  the  room.  There  is 
one  small  mirror  set  in  a  broad 
carved  frame  of  yellow  wood  hung 


198  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

in  the  centre  of  a  rather  large  wall- 
space,  its  angles  marked  by  small 
Dutch  plaques ;  but  the  whole  deco¬ 
ration  of  the  room  outside  of  these 
pieces  consists  of  draperies  of  blue 
denim  in  which  there  is  a  design,  in 
narrow  white  outline,  of  leaping  fish, 
and  the  widening  water-circles  and 
showery  drops  made  by  their  play. 
The  white  lines  in  the  design  answer 
to  the  white  spaces  in  the  decorated 
china,  and  the  two  used  together  in 
profusion  have  an  unexpectedly  deco¬ 
rative  effect.  The  table  and  chairs 
are,  of  course,  of  the  same  coloured 
wood  used  in  the  ceiling  and  wain¬ 
scot,  and  the  rug  is  an  India  cotton 
of  dark  and  light  blues  and  white. 
The  sideboard  is  an  arrangement  of 
fixed  shelves,  but  covered  with  a 
beautiful  collection  of  blue  china, 
which  serves  to  furnish  the  table  as 
well.  If  the  dining-room  had  a 
northern  exposure,  and  it  were  desira- 


DINING-ROOM  IN  "STAR  ROCK”  (COUNTRY  HOUSE  OF  W.  E.  CONNOR,  ESQ.,  ONTEORA) 


FURNITURE 


199 


ble  to  use  red  instead  of  blue  for 
colouring,  as  good  an  effect  could  be 
secured  by  depending  for  ornament 
upon  the  red  Kaga  porcelain  so  com¬ 
mon  at  present  in  Japanese  and  Chi¬ 
nese  shops,  and  using  with  it  the 
Eastern  cotton  known  as  bez,  This 
is  dyed  with  madder,  and  exactly 
repeats  the  red  of  the  porcelain,  while 
it  is  extremely  durable  both  in  col¬ 
our  and  texture.  Borders  of  yellow 
stitchery,  or  straggling  fringes  of  silk 
and  beads,  add  very  much  to  the 
effect  of  the  drapery  and  to  the  char¬ 
acter  of  the  room. 

A  library  in  ordinary  family  life 
has  two  parts  to  play.  It  is  not 
only  to  hold  books,  but  to  make  the 
family  at  home  in  a  literary  atmos¬ 
phere.  Such  a  room  is  apt  to  be  a 
fascinating  one  by  reason  of  this 
very  variety  of  use  and  purpose, 
and  because  it  is  a  centre  for  all 
the  family  treasures.  Books,  pictures, 


200  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

papers,  photographs,  bits  of  decora¬ 
tive  needlework,  all  centre  here,  and 
all  are  on  most  orderly  behaviour, 
like  children  at  a  company  dinner. 
The  col  our  of  such  a  room  may,  and 
should,  be  much  warmer  and  stronger 
than  that  of  a  parlour  pure  and  sim¬ 
ple,  the  very  constancy  and  hardness 
of  its  use  indicating  tints  of  strength 
and  resistance ;  but,  keeping  that  in 
mind,  the  rules  for  general  use  of 
colour  and  harmony  of  tints  will 
apply  as  well  to  a  room  used  for  a 
double  as  for  a  single  purpose.  Of 
course  the  furniture  should  be  more 
solid  and  darker,  as  would  be  neces¬ 
sary  for  constant  use,  but  the  deep¬ 
ening  of  tones  in  general  colour  pro¬ 
vides  for  that,  and  for  the  use  of  rugs 
of  a  different  character.  In  a  room 
of  this  kind  perhaps  the  best  possible 
effect  is  produced  by  the  use  of  some 
textile  as  a  wall-covering,  as  in  that 
case  the  same  material  with  a  con- 


FURNITURE 


201 


trasted  colour  in  the  lining  can  be 
used  for  curtains,  and  to  some  extent 
in  the  furniture.  This  use  of  one 
material  has  not  only  an  effect  of 
richness  which  is  due  to  the  library 
of  the  house,  but  it  softens  and  brings 
together  all  the  heterogeneous  things 
which  different  members  of  a  large 
family  are  apt  to  require  in  a  sitting- 
room. 

To  those  who  prefer  to  work  out 
and  adapt  their  own  surroundings,  it 
is  well  to  illustrate  the  advice  given 
for  colour  in  different  exposures  by 
selecting  particular  rooms,  with  their 
various  relations  to  light,  use,  and 
circumstances,  and  seeing  how  col¬ 
our-principles  can  be  applied  to  them. 

We  may  choose  a  reception-hall, 
in  either  a  city  or  country  house, 
since  the  treatment  would  in  both 
cases  be  guided  by  the  same  rules. 
If  in  a  city  house,  it  may  be  on  the 
shady  or  the  sunny  side  of  the  street, 


202  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

and  this  at  once  would  differentiate, 
perhaps  the  colour,  and  certainly  the 
depth  of  colour  to  be  used.  If  it 
is  the  hall  of  a  country  house  the 
difference  between  north  or  south 
light  will  not  be  as  great,  since  a 
room  opening  on  the  north  in  a 
house  standing  alone,  in  unobstructed 
space,  would  have  an  effect  of  cold¬ 
ness,  but  not  necessarily  of  shadow  or 
darkness.  The  first  condition,  then, 
of  coldness  of  light  would  have  to  be 
considered  in  both  cases,  but  less 
positively  in  the  country,  than  in  the 
city  house.  If  the  room  is  actually 
dark,  a  warm  or  orange  tone  of  yel¬ 
low  will  both  modify  and  lighten  it. 

Gold-coloured  or  yellow  canvas 
with  oak  mouldings  lighten  and  warm 
the  walls ;  and  rugs  with  a  prepon¬ 
derance  of  white  and  yellow  trans¬ 
form  a  dark  hall  into  a  light  and 
cheerful  one.  It  must  be  remem¬ 
bered  that  few  dark  colours  can 


FURNITURE 


203 


assert  themselves  in  the  absolute 
shadow  of  a  north  light.  Green  and 
blue  become  black.  Gold,  orange, 
and  red  alone  have  sufficient  power 
to  hold  their  own,  and  make  us  con¬ 
scious  of  them  in  darkness. 

In  a  hall  which  has  plenty  of 
light,  but  no  sun,  red  is  an  effective 
and  natural  colour;  copper-coloured 
leather  paper,  cushions  and  rugs  or 
carpets  of  varying  shades  of  red, 
and  transparent  curtains  of  the  same 
tint  give  an  effect  of  warmth  and 
vitality.  Red  is  truly  a  delightful 
colour  to  deal  with  in  shadowed 
interiors,  its  sensitiveness  to  light, 
changing  from  colour-tinted  dark¬ 
ness  to  palpitating  ruby,  and  even  to 
flame  colour,  on  the  slightest  invita¬ 
tion  of  day-  or  lamp-light,  makes  it 
like  a  living  presence.  It  is  especi¬ 
ally  valuable  at  the  entrance  of  the 
home,  where  it  seems  to  meet  one 
with  almost  a  human  welcome. 


204  PRINCIPLES  of  home  decoration 

If  we  can  succeed  in  making  what 
would  be  a  cold  and  unattractive  en¬ 
trance  hospitable  and  cordial  by  lib¬ 
eral  use  of  warm  and  strong  colour, 
by  reversing  the  effort  we  can  just 
as  easily  modify  the  effect  of  glaring, 
or  overpowering,  sunlight. 

Suppose  the  entrance-hall  of  the 
house  to  be  upon  the  sunny  side  of 
the  street,  where  in  addition  to  the 
natural  effect  of  full  rays  of  the  sun 
there  are  also  the  reflections  from 
innumerable  other  house-fronts  and 
house-windows. 

In  this  case  we  must  simulate 
shadow  and  mystery,  and  this  can  be 
done  by  the  colour-tones  of  blues 
and  greens.  I  use  these  in  the 
plural  because  the  shadows  of  both 
are  innumerable,  and  because  all, 
except  perhaps  turquoise  and  apple- 
green,  are  natural  shadow-tints.  Green 
and  blue  can  be  used  together  or 
separately,  according  to  the  skill  and 


FURNITURE 


205 


what  is  called  the  “colour-sense” 
with  which  they  are  applied. 

To  use  them  together  requires  not 
only  observation  of  colour-occurrences 
in  nature  but  sensitiveness  to  the  more 
subtle  out-of-door  effects,  resulting 
from  intermingling  of  shadows  and 
reflection  of  lights.  Well  done,  it  is 
one  of  the  most  beautiful  and  satisfac¬ 
tory  of  achievements,  but  it  may  easily 
be  bad  by  reason  of  sharp  contrasts,  or 
unmodified  juxtaposition. 

But  a  room  where  blue  in  all  its 
shades  from  dark  to  light  alone  pre¬ 
dominates,  or  a  room  where  only 
green  is  used,  bright  and  gray  tones 
in  contrast  and  variation  is  within 
the  reach  of  most  colour-loving  mor¬ 
tals,  and  as  both  of  these  tints  are 
companionable  with  oak  and  gold, 
and  to  be  found  in  nearly  all  deco¬ 
rative  materials,  it  is  easy  to  arrange 
a  refined  and  beautiful  effect  in  either 
colour. 


206  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

It  will  require  little  reflection  to 
show  that  a  hall  skilfully  treated  with 
green  or  blue  tints  would  modify  the 
colour  of  sunlight,  without  giving  a 
sense  of  discord.  It  would  be  like 
passing  only  from  sunlight  to  grate¬ 
ful  shadow,  and  this  because  in  all 
art  the  actual  representation  shadow- 
colour  would  be  blue  or  green.  The 
shadow  of  a  tree  falling  upon  snow 
on  a  sunny  winter  day  is  blue.  The 
shadow  of  a  sunheated  rock  in  sum¬ 
mer  is  green,  and  the  success  of  either 
of  these  schemes  of  decoration  would 
be  because  of  adherence  to  an  actual 
principle  of  colour,  or  a  knowledge 
of  the  peculiar  qualities  of  certain 
colours  and  their  proper  use.  It 
would  be  an  intelligent  application 
of  the  medicinal  or  healing  qualities 
of  colour  to  the  constitution  of  the 
house,  as  skilful  physicians  use  medi¬ 
cines  to  overcome  constitutional  de¬ 
fects  or  difficulties  in  man. 


FURNITURE 


207 


This  may  be  called  corrective  treat¬ 
ment  of  a  room,  and  may,  of  course, 
include  all  the  decorative  devices  of 
ornament,  design  and  furniture,  and 
although  it  is  not,  strictly  speaking, 
decoration,  it  should  certainly  and 
always  precede  decoration. 

It  is  sad  to  see  an  elaborate  scheme 
of  ornament  based  upon  bad  colour- 
treatment,  and  unfortunately  this  not 
infrequently  happens. 

It  is  difficult  to  give  a  formula  for 
the  decoration  of  any  room  in  rela¬ 
tion  to  its  colour-treatment,  except 
by  a  careful  description  of  certain 
successful  examples,  each  one  of  which 
illustrates  principles  that  may  be  of 
use  to  the  amateur  or  student  of  the 
art. 

One  which  occurs  to  me  in  this 
immediate  connection  is  a  dining¬ 
room  in  an  apartment  house,  where 
this  room  alone  is  absolutely  without 
what  may  be  called  exterior  light. 


208  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

Its  two  windows  open  upon  a  well, 
the  brick  wall  of  which  is  scarcely 
ten  feet  away.  Fortunately,  it^makes 
a  part  of  the  home  of  a  much  trav¬ 
elled  and  exceedingly  cultivated  pair 
of  beings,  the  business  of  one  being 
to  create  beauty  in  the  way  of  pict¬ 
ures  and  the  other  of  statues,  so  per¬ 
haps  it  is  less  than  a  wonder  that  this 
square,  unattractive  well-room  should 
have  blossomed  under  their  hands 
into  a  dining-room  perfect  in  colour, 
style,  and  fittings.  I  shall  give  only 
the  result,  the  process  being  capable 
of  infinite  small  variations. 

At  present  it  is  a  room  sixteen  feet 
square,  one  side  of  which  is  occupied 
by  two  nearly  square  windows.  The 
wood-work,  including  a  five-foot 
wainscot  of  small  square  panels,  is 
painted  a  glittering  varnished  white 
which  is  warm  in  tone,  but  not 
creamy.  The  upper  halves  of  the 
square  windows  are  of  semi-opaque 


FURNITURE 


209 


yellow  glass,  veined  and  variable,  but 
clear  enough  everywhere  to  admit  a 
stained  yellow  light.  Below  these, 
thin  yellow  silk  curtains  cross  each 
other,  so  that  the  whole  window-space 
radiates  yellow  light.  If  we  reflect 
that  the  colour  of  sunlight  is  yellow, 
we  shall  be  able  to  see  both  the 
philosophy  and  the  result  of  this 
treatment. 

The  wall  above  the  wainscot  is 
covered  with  a  plain  unbleached 
muslin,  stencilled  at  the  top  in  a  re¬ 
peating  design  of  faint  yellow  tile¬ 
like  squares  which  fade  gradually  into 
white  at  a  foot  below  the  ceiling. 
At  intervals  along  the  wall  are  water¬ 
colours  of  flat  Holland  meadows,  or 
blue  canals,  balanced  on  either  side 
by  a  blue  delft  plate,  and  in  a  corner 
near  the  window  is  a  veritable  blue 
porcelain  stove,  which  once  faintly 
warmed  some  far-off  German  in¬ 
terior.  The  floor  is  polished  oak,  as 


210  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

are  the  table  and  chairs.  I  pur¬ 
posely  leave  out  all  the  accessories 
and  devices  of  brass  and  silver,  the 
quaint  brass-framed  mirrors,  the  ivy- 
encircled  windows,  the  one  or  two 
great  ferns,  the  choice  blue  table- 
furniture  : — because  these  are  per¬ 
sonal  and  should  neither  be  imitated 
or  reduced  to  rules. 

The  lesson  is  in  the  use  of  yellow 
and  white,  accented  with  touches  of 
blue,  which  converts  a  dark  and  per¬ 
fectly  cheerless  room  into  a  glitter  of 
light  and  warmth. 

The  third  example  I  shall  give  is 
of  a  dining-room  which  may  be  called 
palatial  in  size  and  effect,  occupying 
the  whole  square  wing  of  a  well- 
known  New  York  house.  There  are 
many  things  in  this  house  in  the  way 
of  furniture,  pictures,  historic  bits  of 
art  in  different  lines,  which  would 
distinguish  it  among  fine  houses,  but 
one  particular  room  is,  perhaps,  as 


FURNITURE 


2  I  I 


perfectly  successful  in  richness  of  de¬ 
tail,  picturesqueness  of  effect,  and  at 
the  same  time  perfect  appropriateness 
to  time,  place,  and  circumstances  as 
is  possible  for  any  achievement  of  its 
kind.  The  dining-room,  and  its  art, 
taken  in  detail,  belongs  to  the  Vene¬ 
tian  school,  but  if  its  colour-effect 
were  concentrated  upon  canvas,  it 
would  be  known  as  a  Rembrandt. 
There  is  the  same  rich  shadow,  cover¬ 
ing  a  thousand  gradations, — the  same 
concentration  of  light,  and  the  same 
liberal  diffusion  of  warm  and  rich 
tones  of  colour.  It  is  a  grand  room 
in  space,  as  New  York  interiors  go, 
being  perhaps  forty  to  fifty  feet  in 
breadth  and  length,  with  a  height 
exactly  proportioned  to  the  space. 
It  has  had  the  advantage  of  separate 
creation — being  u  thought  out  years 
after  the  early  period  of  the  house, 
and  is,  moreover,  a  concrete  re¬ 
sult  of  study,  travel,  and  oppor- 


212  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

tunities,  such  as  few  families  are 
privileged  to  experience.  Aside  from 
the  perfect  proportions  of  the  room, 
it  is  not  difficult  to  analyse  the  art 
which  makes  it  so  distinguished  an 
example  of  decoration  of  space,  and 
decide  wherein  lies  its  especial  charm. 
It  is  undoubtedly  that  of  colour,  al¬ 
though  this  is  based  upon  a  detail  so 
perfect,  that  one  hesitates  to  give  it 
predominant  credit.  The  whole,  or 
nearly  the  whole  west  end  of  the 
room  is  thrown  into  one  vast,  slightly 
projecting  window  of  clear  leaded 
glass,  the  lines  of  which  stand  against 
the  light  like  a  weaving  of  spiders’ 
webs.  There  is  a  border  of  various 
tints  at  its  edge,  which  softens  it  into 
the  brown  shadow  of  the  room,  and 
the  centre  of  each  large  sash  is  marked 
by  a  shield-like  ornament  glowing 
with  colour  like  a  jewel.  The  long 
ceiling  and  high  wainscoting  melt 
away  from  this  leaded  window  in 


DINING-ROOM  IN  NEW  YORK  HOUSE  SHOWING  LEADED-CLASS  WINDOWS 


FURNITURE 


2X3 


a  perspective  of  wonderfully  carved 
planes  of  antique  oak,  catching  the 
light  on  lines  and  points  of  projection 
and  quenching  it  in  hollows  of  relief. 

These  perpendicular  wall  panels 
were  scaled  from  a  room  in  a  Vene¬ 
tian  palace,  carved  when  the  art  and 
the  fortunes  of  that  sea-city  were  at 
their  best,  and  the  alternately  repeat¬ 
ing  squares  of  the  ceiling  were  fash¬ 
ioned  to  carry  out  and  supplement 
the  ancient  carvings.  If  this  were 
a  small  room,  there  would  be  a 
sense  of  unrest  in  so  lavish  a  use  of 
broken  surface,  but  in  one  large 
enough  to  have  it  felt  as  a  whole, 
and  not  in  detail,  it  gives  simply  a 
quality  of  preciousness.  The  soft 
browns  of  the  wood  spread  a  mystery 
of  surface  from  the  edge  of  the  pol¬ 
ished  floor  until  it  meets  a  frieze  of 
painted  canvas  filled  with  large  reclin¬ 
ing  figures  clad  in  draperies  of  red 
and  blue  and  yellow — separating  the 


214-  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

walls  from  the  ceiling  by  an  illumi¬ 
nation  of  colour.  This  colour-deco¬ 
ration  belongs  to  the  past,  and  it  is  a 
question  if  any  modern  painting  could 
have  adapted  itself  so  perfectly  to  the 
spirit  of  the  room,  although  in  itself 
it  might  be  far  more  beautiful.  It 
is  a  bit  of  antique  imagination,  its 
cherub-borne  plates  of  fruit,  and 
golden  flagons,  and  brown-green  of 
foliage  and  turquoise  of  sky,  and 
crimson  and  gold  of  garments,  all 
softened  to  meet  the  shadows  of  the 
room.  The  door-spaces  in  the  wain¬ 
scot  are  hung  with  draperies  of  crim¬ 
son  velvet,  the  surface  frayed  and 
flattened  by  time  into  variations  of 
red,  impossible  to  newer  weavings, 
while  the  great  floor-space  is  spread 
with  an  enormous  rug  of  the  same 
colour— the  gift  of  a  Sultan.  A 
carved  table  stands  in  the  centre, 
surrounded  with  high-backed  carved 
chairs,  the  seats  covered  with  the 


FURNITURE 


21  r 


same  antique  velvet  which  shows  in 
the  portieres,  A  fall  of  thin  crimson 
silk  tints  the  sides  of  the  window- 
frame,  and  on  the  two  ends  of  the 
broad  step  or  platform  which  leads  to 
the  window  stand  two  tall  pedestals 
and  globe-shaped  jars  of  red  and 
blue-green  pottery.  The  deep,  ruby¬ 
like  red  of  the  one  and  the  mixed 
indefinite  tint  of  the  other  seem  to 
have  curdled  into  the  exact  shade  for 
each  particular  spot,  their  fitness  is  so 
perfect. 

The  very  sufficient  knowledge 
which  has  gone  to  the  making  of  this 
superb  room  has  kept  the  draperies 
unbroken  by  design  or  device,  giving 
colour  only  and  leaving  to  the  carved 
walls  the  privilege  of  ornament. 

It  will  be  seen  that  there  are  but 
two  noticeable  colour-tones  in  the 
room — brown  with  infinite  variations, 
and  red  in  rugs  and  draperies. 

There  is  no  real  affinity  between 


216  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

these  two  tints,  but  they  are  here  so 
well  balanced  in  mass,  that  the  two 
form  a  complete  harmony,  like  the 
brown  waves  of  a  landscape  at  even-, 
ing  tipped  with  the  fire  of  a  sunset 

Much  is  to  be  learned  from  a 
room  like  this,  in  the  lesson  of  unity 
and  concentration  of  effect.  The 
strongest,  and  in  fact  the  only,  mass 
of  vital  colour  is  in  the  carpet,  which 
is  allowed  to  play  upwards,  as  it  were, 
into  draperies,  and  furniture,  and 
frieze,  none  of  which  show  the  same 
depth  and  intensity.  To  the  concen¬ 
tration  of  light  in  the  one  great  win¬ 
dow  we  must  give  the  credit  of  the 
Rembrandt-like  effect  of  the  whole 
interior.  If  the  walls  were  less  rich, 
this  single  flood  of  light  would  be  a 
defect,  because  it  would  be  difficult  to 
treat  a  plain  surface  with  colour  alone, 
and  thereby  attain  a  result  equally 
good  in  strong  light  and  deep  shadow. 


DINING-ROOM  IN  NEW  YORK  HOME  SHOWING  CARVED  WAINSCOTTING  AND  PAINTED  FRIEZE 


FURNITURE 


217 


Then,  again,  the  amount  of  living 
and  brilliant  colour  is  exactly  pro¬ 
portioned  to  that  of  sombre  brown, 
the  red  holding  its  value  by  strength, 
as  against  the  greatly  preponderating 
mass  of  dark.  On  the  whole  this 
may  be  called  a  «  picture-room,”  and 
yet  it  is  distinctly  liveable,  lending 
itself  not  only  to  hospitality  and 
ceremonious  function  but  also  to 
real  domesticity.  It  is  true  that 
there  is  a  certain  obligation  in  its 
style  of  beauty  which  calls  for  fine 
manners  and  fine  behaviour,  possibly 
even,  behaviour  in  kind  ;  for  it  is  in 
the  nature  of  all  fine  and  exceptional 
things  to  demand  a  corresponding 
fineness  from  those  who  enjoy  them. 

I  will  give  still  another  dining¬ 
room  as  an  example  of  colour,  which, 
unlike  the  others,  is  not  modern,  but 
a  sort  of  falling  in  of  old  gentility 
and  costliness  into  lines  of  modern 
art — one  might  almost  say  it  hap- 


21 8  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

pened  to  be  beautiful,  and  yet  the 
happening  is  only  an  adjustment  of 
fine  old  conditions  to  modern  ideas. 
Yet  I  have  known  many  as  fine  a 
room  torn  out  and  refitted,  losing 
thereby  all  the  inherent  dignity  of 
age  and  superior  associations. 

A  beautiful  city  home  of  seventy 
years  ago  is  not  very  like  a  beautiful 
city  home  of  to-day  ;  perhaps  less  so 
in  this  than  in  any  other  country. 
The  character  of  its  fineness  is  curi¬ 
ously  changed  ;  the  modern  house  is 
fitted  to  its  inmates,  while  the  old- 
fashioned  house,  modelled  upon  the 
early  eighteenth  century  art  of  Eng¬ 
land,  obliged  the  inmates  to  fit  them¬ 
selves  as  best  they  might  to  a  given 
standard. 

The  dining-room  I  speak  of  be¬ 
longs  to  the  period  when  Washington 
Square,  New  York,  was  still  sur¬ 
rounded  by  noble  homes,  and  almost 
the  limit  of  luxurious  city  life  was 


FURNITURE 


2 1 9 

Union  Square.  The  house  fronts  to 
the  north,  consequently  the  dining¬ 
room,  which  is  at  the  back,  is  flooded 
with  sunshine.  The  ceiling  is  higher 
than  it  would  be  in  a  modern  house, 
and  the  windows  extend  to  the  floor, 
and  rise  nearly  to  the  ceiling,  far  in¬ 
deed  above  the  flat  arches  of  the 
doorways  with  their  rococo  flourishes. 
This  extension  of  window-frame,  and 
the  heavy  and  elaborate  plaster  cor¬ 
nice  so  deep  as  to  be  almost  a  frieze, 
and  the  equally  elaborate  centre¬ 
piece,  are  the  features  which  must 
have  made  it  a  room  difficult  to 
ameliorate. 

I  could  fancy  it  must  have  been 
an  ugly  room  in  the  old  days  when 
its  walls  were  probably  white,  and 

were  spots 
spaces  of 
blankness.  Now,  however,  any  one 
at  all  learned  in  art,  or  sensitive  to 
beauty,  would  pronounce  it  a  beau- 


the  great  mahogany  doors 
of  colour  in  prevailing 


220  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

tiful  room.  The  way  in  which  the 
ceiling  with  its  heavy  centre-piece  and 
plaster  cornice  is  treated  is  especial¬ 
ly  interesting.  The  whole  of  this 
is  covered  with  an  ochre-coloured 
bronze,  while  the  walls  and  door- 
casings  are  painted  a  dark  indigo, 
which  includes  a  faint  trace  of  green. 
Over  this  wall-colour,  and  joining 
the  cornice,  is  carried  a  stencil  de¬ 
sign  in  two  coloured  bronzes  which 
seem  to  repeat  the  light  and  shadow 
of  the  cornice  mouldings,  and  this 
apparently  extends  the  cornice  into  a 
frieze  which  ends  faintly  at  a  picture¬ 
moulding  some  three  feet  below. 
This  treatment  not  only  lowers  the 
ceiling,  which  is  in  construction  too 
high  for  the  area  of  the  room,  but 
blends  it  with  the  wall  in  a  way 
which  imparts  a  certain  richness  of 
effect  to  all  the  lower  space. 

The  upper  part  of  the  windows, 
to  the  level  of  the  picture-moulding, 


FURNITURE 


22  I 


is  covered  with  green  silk,  overlaid 
with  an  applique  of  the  same  in  a 
design  somewhat  like  the  frieze,  so 
that  it  seems  to  carry  the  frieze  across 
the  space  of  light  in  a  green  tracery 
of  shadow.  The  same  green  extends 
from  curtain-rods  at  the  height  of 
the  picture-moulding  into  long  under¬ 
curtains  of  silk,  while  the  over-cur¬ 
tains  are  of  indigo  coloured  silk-can¬ 
vas  which  matches  the  walls. 

The  portieres  separating  the  din¬ 
ing-room  from  the  drawing-room  are 
of  a  wonderfully  rich  green  brocade 

_ the  colour  of  which  answers  to 

the  green  of  the  silk  under-curtains 
across  the  room,  while  the  design 
ranges  itself  indisputably  with  the 
period  of  the  plaster  work.  The 
blue  and  green  of  the  curtains  and 
portiere  each  seem  to  claim  their  own 
in  the  mixed  and  softened  background 
of  the  wall. 

The  colour  of  the  room  would 


222  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

hardly  be  complete  without  the  three 
beautiful  portraits  which  hang  upon 
the  walls,  and  suggest  their  part  of 
the  life  and  conversation  of  to-day 
so  that  it  stands  on  a  proper  plane 
with  the  dignity  of  three  generations. 
The  beautiful  mahogany  doors  and 
elaboration  of  cornice  and  central 
ornament  belong  to  them,  but  the 
harmony  and  beauty  of  colour  are 
of  our  own  time  and  tell  of  the  gen¬ 
eral  knowledge  and  feeling  for  art 
which  belong  to  it. 

I  have  given  the  colour-treatment 
only  of  this  room,  leaving  out  the 
effect  of  carved  teak-wood  furniture 
and  subtleties  of  china  and  glass — 
not  alone  as  an  instance  of  colour  in 
a  sunny  exposure,  but  as  an  example 
of  fitting  new  styles  to  old,  of  keep¬ 
ing  what  is  valuable  and  beautiful  in 
itself  and  making  it  a  part  of  the 
comparatively  new  art  of  decoration. 

There  is  a  dining-room  in  one  of 


GLASS  BY  DUNHAM  WHEELER 


SCREEN  BY  DORA  WHEELER  KEITH 


SCREEN  AND  GLASS  WINDOW  IN  HOUSE  AT  LAKEWOOD 
(Belonging  to  Clarence  Roof,  Esq.) 


FURNITURE 


221 


the  many  delightful  houses  in  Lake- 
wood,  N.  J.,  which  owes  its  unique 
charm  to  a  combination  of  position, 
light,  colour,  and  perhaps  more  than 
all,  to  the  clever  decoration  of  its 
upper  walls,  which  is  a  fine  and  broad 
composition  of  swans  and  many-col¬ 
oured  clusters  of  grapes  and  vine- 
foliage  placed  above  the  softly 
tinted  copper-coloured  wall.  The 
same  design  is  carried  in  silvery  and 
gold-coloured  leaded-glass  across  the 
top  of  the  wide  west  window,  as 
shown  in  illustration  opposite  page 
222,  and  reappears  with  a  shield¬ 
shaped  arrangement  of  wings  in  a 
beautiful  four-leaved  screen. 

The  notable  and  enjoyable  colour 
of  the  room  is  seen  from  the  very 
entrance  of  the  house,  the  broad 
main  hall  making  a  carpeted  highway 
to  the  wide  opening  of  the  room, 
where  a  sheaf  of  tinted  sunset  light 
seems  to  spread  itself  like  a  many- 


224  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

doubled  fan  against  the  shadows  of 
the  hall. 

All  the  ranges  and  intervals,  the 
lights,  reflections,  and  darks  possible 
to  that  most  beautiful  of  metals — - 
copper- — seem  to  be  gathered  into 
the  frieze  and  screen,  and  melt  softly 
into  the  greens  of  the  foliage,  or  tint 
the  plumage  of  the  swans.  It  is  an 
instance  of  the  kind  of  decoration 
which  is  both  classic  and  domestic, 
and  being  warmed  and  vivified  by 
beautiful  colour,  appeals  both  to  the 
senses  and  the  imagination. 

It  would  be  easy  to  multiply  in¬ 
stances  of  beautiful  rooms,  and  each 
one  might  be  helpful  for  mere  imita¬ 
tion,  but  those  I  have  given  have 
each  one  illustrated — more  or  less 
distinctly — the  principle  oi  colour  as 
affecting  or  being  affected  by  light. 

I  have  not  thought  it  necessary  to 
give  examples  of  rooms  with  eastern 
or  western  exposures,  because  in  such 


FURNITURE  22  $ 

rooms  one  is  free  to  consult  one’s 
own  personal  preferences  as  to  col¬ 
our,  being  limited  only  by  the  gen¬ 
eral  rules  which  govern  all  colour 
decoration. 

I  have  not  spoken  of  pictures  or 
paintings  as  accessories  of  interior 
decoration,  because  while  their  influ¬ 
ence  upon  the  character  and  degree 
of  beauty  in  the  house  is  greater  than 
all  other  things  put  together,  their 
selection  and  use  are  so  purely  per¬ 
sonal  as  not  to  call  for  remark  or 
advice.  Any  one  who  loves  pictures 
well  enough  to  buy  them,  can  hardly 
help  placing  them  where  they  not 
only  are  at  their  best,  but  where 
they  will  also  have  the  greatest  in¬ 
fluence. 

A  house  where  pictures  predom¬ 
inate  will  need  little  else  that  comes 
under  the  head  of  decoration.  It  is 
a  pity  that  few  houses  have  this  ad¬ 
vantage,  but  fortunately  it  is  quite 


226  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOME  DECORATION 

possible  to  give  a  picture  quality  to 
every  interior.  This  can  often  be 
done  by  following  the  lead  of  some 
accidental  effect  which  is  in  itself 
picturesque.  The  placing  a  jar  of 
pottery  or  metal  near  or  against  a 
piece  of  drapery  which  repeats  its 
colour  and  heightens  the  lustre  of  its 
substance  is  a  small  detail,  but  one 
which  gives  pleasure  out  of  all  pro¬ 
portion  to  its  importance.  The  half 
accidental  draping  of  a  curtain,  the 
bringing  together  of  shapes  and  col¬ 
ours  in  insignificant  things,  may  give 
a  character  which  is  lastingly  pleasing 
both  to  inmates  and  casual  visitors. 

Of  course  this  is  largely  a  matter 
of  personal  gift.  One  person  may 
make  a  picturesque  use  of  colour  and 
material,  which  in  the  hands  of  an¬ 
other  will  be  perhaps  without  fault, 
but  equally  without  charm.  In¬ 
stances  of  this  kind  come  constantly 
within  our  notice,  although  we  are 


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227 


not  always  able  to  give  the  exact 
reasons  for  success  or  failure.  We 
only  know  that  we  feel  the  charm  of 
one  instance  and  are  indifferent  to, 
or  totally  unimpressed  by,  the  other. 

It  is  by  no  means  an  unimportant 
thing  to  create  a  beautiful  and  pict¬ 
uresque  interior.  There  is  no  influ¬ 
ence  so  potent  upon  life  as  harmoni¬ 
ous  surroundings,  and  to  create  and 
possess  a  home  which  is  harmonious 
in  a  simple  and  inexpensive  way  is  the 
privilege  of  all  but  the  wretchedly 
poor.  In  proportion  also  as  these 
surroundings  become  more  perfect 
in  their  art  and  meaning,  there  is  a 
corresponding  elevation  in  the  dweller 
among  them — -since  the  best  decora¬ 
tion  must  include  many  spiritual  les¬ 
sons.  It  may  indeed  be  used  to 
further  vulgar  ambitions,  or  pamper 
bodily  weaknesses,  but  truth  and 
beauty  are  its  essentials,  and  these 
will  have  their  utterance. 


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